How to Make a Custom Boy Scout Troop Neckerchief.

Why buy custom Troop neckerchiefs? They cost a fortune about $13.00 each and to get them custom with your Troops logo you have to order them in lots of 50! Well not every troop has 50 boys, so you have to hold onto them forever, while eating the cost. So make your own for way less than $5.00 when you make more than a couple.  The more you make the less it cost per neckerchief.

List of stuff to buy:

2 colors of fabric
The green I bought a sheet WAY cheaper than fabric by the yd. I paid $6.00 for a king sized top sheet on sale. It made 12 neckerchiefs, would have made more but I messed a couple up. So we’ll say it’ll make around 15 depending on the size you make yours.  (Pick a light color for this so you don’t have to buy the transfer paper for dark fabric, you will thank me for this later,) The black I bought 1 yd  at $4.99, used a coupon and got 50% off that, 1 yd will make 12 if you use a 3” strip for the accent color.

Thread to match your accent color
My accent color is the black. I already had thread so I didn’t need to buy any but if you do I paid less than $5.00 for that cone of thread and I’ve had it for over a year.

Iron-on Transfer paper
Any brand will work I got mine for light fabric it’s way cheaper and won’t leave behind the white in the background,  I got this a Michaels, it was $9.99 I had a coupon for 40% off, so I only paid $5.99 for it and it will make 40 neckerchiefs!

Other stuff you will need:
Rotary cutter, matt, and ruler
If you don’t have a rotary cutter just use scissors and a long ruler or yard stick
Scrap paper, or newspaper
I don’t like using newspaper, because it leaves newsprint ink behind and makes your stuff look dirty.
Tape if your piecing together paper
Straight pins
I don’t use pins, but some people do
Sewing machine
You don’t have to have a sewing machine, you could hand sew them, but that might take forever!

Tape together your paper, so you can draw out your pattern. To come up with the size you need, (about 36” for an adult) I took a piece of string and draped if around the largest boy or adult in the troop and let it hang down to about where I thought the neckerchief should stop then measured that. I came up with 33” and because a yd of fabric is 36” I went with that. So tape your paper together so your have 36” (or what ever your # is) across, and about half that distance deep.

Next I folder my paper in half.  That’s your center line, unfold your paper, take your ruler to your fold line and mark up to each corner of your paper, I should make something like a triangle.  Cut your triangle out. That’s your pattern.

Next fold your fabric so that the salvage end (the part of the fabric that is from the factory that is not cut and won’t fray) is facing the same way. This is your longest side.

Next lay your pattern on the fabric making sure you put your longest edge to the salvage, (my photo’s a bit wrong I have part of the top fold in mine DON’T do this, use the other edge, you will get more out of your sheet the other way and won’t end of with the extra fold in your project.)  You can pin the pattern onto your fabric to cut it out, or trace your pattern out on your fabric and cut it out.    I lay my pattern on my fabric, place my rotary ruler over my pattern and cut it out with the rotary cutter.  This is the quickest way.

Your yard of accent fabric is usually between 42”-46” by 36” don’t unfold the factory fold on your fabric. Leave it folded in half the way you bought it. Fold your yard of fabric once or twice in half leaving it 36” long but only about 12” wide.  Measure out how wide you want your accent strip to be, add about 1 ½ “ to that. My total accent strip is 3”. Measure that out with your ruler and cut it off the fabric like in the picture. You will end up with a strip of accent fabric that is 3” by 45” (or however long your fabric is). You will need 2 strips of accent fabric for every neckerchief you make. Cut out how many strips you need.

Next lay your triangle piece of fabric out, and lay your accent fabric over it. Like in the picture, making sure you have about 3” of fabric at the top, and leaving the extra fabric at the bottom, DON’T CUT ANY OFF! LEAVE ALL THE EXTRA FABRIC ON! Line up the edges, you can pin it here if you use pins.

Next sew the accent fabric to the triangle piece of fabric using a straight stitch, I used ¼ inch seam here.  DON’T GO ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM! Leave about ¼ to ½ inch at the point of the triangle not sewn.  Sew the other side. Making sure you sew them both on the same side.

I then take the seam I just sewed and fold it open and iron it so it’s opened.  So that the triangle fabric it ironed over the accent fabric.

I then run another seam along the triangle fabric. Like in the picture.  This will keep your fabric from fraying.

Next I folded the raw edge of the fabric over about 1/8 to ¼ inch, this is the edge not sewn to the triangle.

And ironed it all the way down, I used steam to hold it good.

I then folded it over again and pressed it again with the iron.

Then sewn a straight seam down that edge to which will keep it from fraying.

Fold the top end of the neckerchief accent strip over and down like in the photo.  Making a triangle.

Iron it, making sure to leave a crease.

Fold it back open.

Fold the edge of the strip over to the crease you just made.  Iron that.

Then fold it over again. And Iron it again. It should be folded back to the way it was in Step #18, but with the extra fold underneath it.

Sew it straight across, to the edge of the first layer of fabric. As shown in the photo, the red arrow.  Stop at the edge.

Then turn it and sew the other edge as shown in the photo in red.  I then sew it back to the starting point as shown in yellow.

I then cut it even with the outside edge, as shown.

It should look like the photo.

Next is the point, or the bottom of the neckerchief.

Fold the bottom two accent fabric pieces as shown in the photo. To make a point.

Iron them real good.  Make sure both the top point and bottom point line up, while ironing it.

They should look like the one in the photo, but make sure you line up the top point, so it don’t end up misaligned like the one in the photo. I fixed it before I sewed it.

Set your sewing machine to the widest zigzag stitch you have, and shorten the length stitch, as shown.

Sew you bottom points with your zigzag all the way to the bottom point, keeping your stitches tight.

Turn over neckerchief and cut the extra accent fabric off as close as you can get to the stitches without cutting your stitches.

Next we’re going to do our design for the scarf. You will need iron on transfer paper. Any brand will do. I got this one at Michaels for $9.99 and had a 40% off coupon so only paid $5.99. Which enough to make 40! (you can sign up at Michaels.com to receive their coupons by email.)

On your computer you need a “photo shop” like program. I used paint. It came with my computer.

You can either go onto your search engine online and find a free clipart, or design one yourself. Our troop had a contest and one of the boys made this one for us. It’s copyrighted so PLEASE don’t use our clipart.  After you design your clipart with wording and such. Check your iron on transfer paper directions, Mine says to mirror image it, or “flip” it so it’s reversed. I then save it to my computer.

Next I go to my print options. No sure what your computer does, but mine gives me options on what size I want to print this. I want to print 4 for every sheet, so I pick the size. If your computer doesn’t give you the option to resize your work, zoom out in paint and copy and paste your clipart 3 more times, then go to page setup, and pick the option to make it 1 by 1 pages.  Then go to print review, if it looks right print it.

Cut your clipart out, depending on what type of iron on paper you get, read your directions at this point,  Mine only transfers what I printed on the paper. NO white background so I don’t need to get too close to the print.  Some leave a white background so your going to want to cut all the white out if that’s the paper you’ve chosen. This would be iron on transfer paper for dark fabrics.

Line up your transfer on your neckerchief to where you want it to be.

Iron it according to it’s directions on the package of transfer paper.

Peel off transfer paper and enjoy your new neckerchief!  
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