Making a Dining Scarf

I’ve had it! There is a reason why I wear dark or black blouses and t-shirts…I will inevitably spill or drip something right in the middle no matter how careful I try to be. I recently bought several lovely blouses in bright blue, purple and white. Of course, the first time I wore one my salad dressing dripped…just one drop…right in the middle of the front of my new blouse! Grrr! I had to spray and wash the blouse twice to get the stain out. I needed a solution or go back to my navy and black tops.

Some of you may remember last September I wrote about making an adult bib for a friend (https://marykisner.com/adult-bibs-are-not-just-for-nursing-homes/). At the time I was surprised to see the many variations of ways to protect your clothing from food spills. Some were standard bibs; others were clever cover-ups. I had never thought of a solution that could protect my clothing and still look nice out in public.

These two pictures (from a Pinterest search for “dining scarves”) caught my attention:

This one looked really dressy and slippery. I think it would need a snap, Velcro or dressy pin to hold it together.

I can imagine all the novelty fabrics that could make something like this!

Time to experiment! I took a fleece scarf and put it around my neck. I pinched it about where it needed to start getting skinnier to wrap more closely around my neck.

Since I was going to use fabric I had available, I knew I would need to seam the scarf at the center back.

I figured this print would hide all kinds of spills!

Using the fleece scarf as a pattern, I folded it in half and cut two pieces of the outer fabric…about 10″ by 27″. I then cut matching flannel for the lining. I’m hoping the flannel back will sort of cling to my shirt underneath so it wouldn’t need a fastener to stay put.