Koos Mobius Spiral Scarf

by Linda Chang Teufel

 

This is an really fabulous project. It’s a unique mobius scarf in that it doesn’t have a long straight seam, rather a long spiral seam. It is ingenious construction, as you might expect from Koos. Once you make one, you’ll want to make it again out of different weights of fabrics.

The picture at the top of this post is of the two that Koos made for me. The blue one is made of 4 different widths of silks pieced together on straight grain to form the base rectangle. That is then attached to very thin batting. The black scarf is wool jersey with dotted wool jersey strips and rayon brocade strips on top. There is no batting on this version. Here’s me in one I made for a friend:

Consider the paper tube on the inside of a paper towel roll as you’re putting this together. That’s what I did when I was figuring out the construction. (Who knew cleaning your kitchen could be so useful?) I’m going to walk you through a scarf I made using using Japanese cottons on shantung with no batting.

First, let’s study a humble paper towel roll:

The inner tube is a spiral roll which when twisted becomes a mobius strip. I tried out my construction on muslin first until I figured how to piece this all together.

Width and length measurements are approximate. Use this as a rough guideline:
Width 24-30”
Length 60-70”
For my version I decided on a 25”x70” cut size.

This was another of those projects that had me digging through my stash, visiting my old fabric friends. I chose a number of coordinating fabrics:

Let’s get started!

1. Cut a base fabric of approximately 25”x70”. All seams will be either 1/4” to 1/2”. You decide.

2. Place some strips of coordinating fabric on the base fabric. My strips were 3”-5” wide. Stitch down, close to the edges.

3. Cut, then make some binding. It doesn’t have to be bias since it is a straight line. I used the Clover tape maker to make two different 1/2” bindings.

4. Sew the bindings over the raw edges of the strips, covering the stitches. This is the finished rectangular base. Here’s what you should have so far:

5. Now, place this base wrong side down. Fold up one edge 90 degrees as shown here:

6. Fold the other end (top) down at an angle so that it lines up with the first side:

7. Pin in two places to hold edges in place with cut edges matching and right sides together:

8. Start sewing from that point to the end, making sure cut ends are lined up on top of each other. Stop when you are about 3” from the end.

9.  Turn it around leaving a 5” space unsewn. This will be the “turning opening”. Sew the rest of the length, stopping a few inches from the end again.

10. Press the seam open, then pull it right side out through the ends.

11. Lay the scarf flat on the table and put one 24” end over the top of the other end with right sides together. Pin.

12. Stitch across the ends.

13. Turn this inside out through the turning opening. Resume sewing the rest of the spiral seam through those ends. Pull this right side out through the turning opening.

14. Invisibly hand stitch the opening closed. VOILA! Your own designer scarf.

A quick note: You can piece your fabrics into a base rectangle using slightly wavy lines too. Cut them into slight curves and stitch them down. If you do this you’ll need bias cut tape for the gold edge trim. Good luck!