How to sew a Chemo scarf

The house is quiet, which makes the best time for sewing. 

Here are the instructions for sewing my chemo scarves. It's really not hard, but I am picky. 

My end result will be something beautiful and professional looking.

1) Mist the scarf with water.

2) Fold edge and iron at 1/4 inch.

 3) Fold edge over again to make a nice clean look.

4) Now for the part I'm picky about. Sew on the edge of the fabric, like this.

This will make for a softer and more comfortable feeling against a bald head.

Side note: NOT like this.

5) Trim the end.

 

 6) Repeat steps 1-5 again on the next side. I do one side at a time. I also do 10-15 scarves at at time. That way I can sit and iron one side of 10-15 before I have to get up and iron the next side.

7) The back side view.

8) The front view.

How to cut out a Chemo scarf 101

(To do this demonstration I used 2 1/3 yards fabric.)

When you buy the fabric on a bolt it is folded length wise. 

Unfold it and refold it width wise. Cut at 28 inches.

This is how it looks now. 

 That extra piece from the end you just cut off? 

Set it aside, you'll use that later for JP Drain bags.

Hopefully you're good at folding. Unfold the fabric and refold it length wise. 

It'll be a long narrow piece of fabric, folded in half. Measure and cut at 28 inches. 

Readjust the fabric and cut every 28 inches. 

For 2 1/3 yards that give you 3- 28inch square pieces.

Open up your square piece of fabric and fold it into a triangle.

Line edges up and cut down the middle. 

I use this nice mat and follow its grid line down the middle. 

You will now have 2 triange chemo scarves. 

Repeat with remaining 2 square pieces.

When you're all done, you'll have 6 chemo scarves.

The next step in the process is to sew them, but I'll need to blog about that later as my kids will be home from school soon.

A Step in the Right Direction

Today I drove over to St. Marks Hospital to drop off chemo scarves. Something about today's visit was different than other times I've gone there. Usually I'm assaulted with anxiety and memories. Today I felt none of that. I was happy to be there and felt like I was there with a purpose! It was an amazing thing to experience. My drive home took me past my chemo center. Again, there are a lot of memories and raw emotions associated with this place, but not today. I was surprised  at the peace I felt as I drove by. Maybe in some small way I am accepting what I've gone through and who I have become...or maybe this chemo scarf project is helping me to heal mentally and emotionally. Whatever the reason for today's experience, I'm grateful for the step in the right direction.

Pay it Forward Segment

In case you missed it! Last night my story aired. It was a pretty exciting night at my house! My living room was filled with family and friends! It was perfect! We watched my segment TWICE!

Today I feel like I'm living in a dream, MY DREAM!

Thank you to you, my friends and family, for supporting my cause and MY DREAM!

Click on the link below to watch my story, and then go donate to my cause!

 CK Scarves: Pay it Forward

CK Scarves in on the News!

August 12, 2015
 
Today started like any day: wake up, get ready for the day, put makeup on, load the dishwasher, straighten up my bedroom and rush out the door to go to an appointment with my Grandparents. It's while I was hurrying to get to my grandparents appointment that my day became interesting. My cell phone rang while I was driving, but I don't answer calls while driving so when I got where I was going I checked my voicemail. I had missed a call from a neighbor (whom will be anonymous for now...) who was calling to talk to me about my chemo scarf project. I figured she probably knew someone going through cancer and wanted me to mail them a scarf. No problem. I called her back and she said she had been talking to a friend about my project and they told a friend who works at Channel 2 News. This Channel 2 News guy liked my project and asked my friend if she thought I'd let him interview me for the news. She relayed all that to me and said if I was interested they actually would be in my area and wanted to do the interview at 1:30pm TODAY! I explained that I was at a doctor appointment and didn't think I could be home in time, so she called Channel 2 to see if they could do my interview next week. It turns out they really wanted to get my interview done today, so they rearranged their schedules so they could come at 3pm.

This whole time the thoughts running through my head went something like this: 
'Oh my goodness! I am so excited to share this scarf project!' 
'If sharing my project will help find people who need one of my scarves then this is totally worth it!'

'Man I should have worn a better outfit'
 'I wonder how my hair looks?'
'Boy am I glad I changed my fingernail polish!'
'Will I have time to straighten up my house before the  interview?

These are all normal thoughts, right?

After my grandparents appointment and a nice lunch I picked up my boys from their grandma's house and rushed home to get my house 'TV' ready. Channel 2 stopped by right at 3pm. There were 3 men; 2 of them were in just ordinary t-shirts and shorts and the 3rd guy was dressed up real nice and business like. I figured the man dressed nice was the one who would be doing the interview. I was wrong. He just hung off in the corner and listened to my interview. The short version of this story is that my interview is really going to be shared as one of the Pay it Forward segments on Channel 2 News! I had no idea! Even up to the point where the nicely dressed guy opened up the envelope with $500 cash! I had been so caught up in my excitement to share what I was doing through the interview that it didn't even register that it could be that.

My story is going to be aired on August 26th on Channels 2's 10pm news! So, I propose we have a news watching party! Who would like to come to my house and watch the news with me? Never mind that its a school night...
Give me a holler if you think you'd like to come!

My Logo is Born!

My original goal for having my logo done was the end of August. Boy am I glad I had this in the works before my story hit the news! A big thank you to my designer who worked a little harder to get it done a little quicker!

The next step in my process is to get my labels made!

Then? 

It's GO time!!