Recently I was discussing an idea with a friend of mine who is a lot more up to date in young ladies wear than I am and it was about arm warmers. I had a look at the examples and thought, this is an easy project for anyone with an overlocker and a little imagination. She was kind enough to be the test pilot for the idea as guys don't usually wear this type of item. I had a roll of a very pretty fabric, a black semi-shiny velour that I used for making undergarments before I started making fleece trackies for the winter. This is the simple project that you can make for youngsters that costs very little and are popular with some kids
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/01_pattern.jpg)
This is the basic pattern made from non-fusible vilene. A pattern of this type can be pinned onto fussy easily stretched fabrics so you get reasonable accuracy when cutting it out.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/02_pinup.jpg)
Pin the pattern to a double layer of the fabric laid face to face making sure you smooth the fabric and don't stretch it.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/03_cutout.jpg)
Cut the fabric out to the outline of the pattern.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/04_sightline.jpg)
Chalk a site line to overlock the top and bottom edges. This will depend a bit on both the overlocker and the fabric but in this case I used a small lightweight overlocker that is set up for edging single layer light fabrics.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/05_thumbstirrup.jpg)
Pin the polyester tape at the top of the seam in the middle and mark out the 2 locations where it is zig zagged. The width on this item is about 2 inches center to center of the zig zag.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/06_finished_stirrup.jpg)
Trim off the two ends of the polyester tape so you have tidy edges.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/07_overlocked_edge.jpg)
Carefully overlock the two edges together taking care to pin them up accurately. Once it is overlocked it is worth running a locking zig zag at each end of the overlock so it does not unravel.
(http://movsd.com/photos/arm_warmers/08_finished.jpg)
This is the pair of finished items turned the right way around. I had not finally trimmed the two ends of threads but this is basically what they look like.
The overlocker I used is set up for fussy single layer fabric for edging and it is configured as a 4 thread safety stitch with #120 Coats Astra for the two needles and #180 Coats GRAMAX for the looper threads.