Race for the Cure

Last weekend, a couple of friends and I did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K to support the fight against breast cancer.  Being the crafty ladies that we are, my friend Jenn (from Fat Cat Crafts) made beanies for us to wear, and I made ruffle scarves.

I had seen this flannel pink ribbon fabric at Joann a while back and thought it was really cute, so I got it, with no plans of what to make with it.

I was thinking maybe cozy pajamas.  But then, I saw this tutorial from Dana Made It, and with the Race for the Cure coming up, I thought scarves would be a good combination with the beanies.  Dana’s tutorial called for shirring with elastic thread, and I gave it a try, but for some reason it wasn’t working that well on my sewing machine.  I read on-line that you have to finagle your machine a bit if you have a Brother sewing machine.  The fix seemed to involve taking the needle plate off and tightening the bobbin casing.  I wasn’t sure I was ready to mess with the sewing machine, so I decided I could achieve the same ruffled effect by using elastic and making a casing for the elastic.

Thank you, handy dandy bias tape maker:

 
Sew it to the back of the scarf:

 
Cut a piece of elastic ½ the length of the scarf, and slip the elastic through.  This was probably the hardest part!

And viola!  We were Racing for the Cure in style:

 
You’ll notice that not all our scarves are made from the pink ribbon fabric.  I think I got 1 ½ yards of the pink ribbon fabric, and it wasn’t enough to make three scarves.  I had pink flannel on hand, so I made a third scarf with just pink and a strip of the pink ribbon fabric.  The pink flannel wasn’t as soft and cozy, but oh well.  You know, there’s something about ruffles.  You just can’t not love them.  :)

16,000 people came out to fight breast cancer.  It was kind of bittersweet.  There was a lot of celebration of life, but I couldn’t help feeling sober, too, seeing how many people were walking in memory of someone they lost to breast cancer.  My friend Jenn lost her aunt to breast cancer several years ago.  I lost my dad to cancer.  And we lost a good family friend to ovarian cancer.  I really hope to see a cure in my lifetime.