Mobius Wrap

Time for some pretty maths:

The mobius strip or band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. You can make one with a strip of paper, giving it a half twist and joining the ends together to form a loop.

(image from Wikipedia) 

 Some time ago, back in April 2009 to be precise, there was a lovely pattern in a magazine called Sew Hip, for a cotton wrap, by Tracy Cushing. I loved it then, and I love it now. Yes, only 2 and a half years later, I have made this wrap, from a gorgeous Moda jelly roll called OZ.

A jelly roll is simply 2.5 inch strips across the width (usually about 44 inches) of every fabric in a range by a certain designer, in this case, Sanae, from Japan, and I bought my jelly roll from Patchkits .

This is a sort of step by step, with far too many photos, but I hope it makes sense. (And if you really don't want to see the step by step, scroll to the bottom of the post and you will see me and my Mobius Wrap completed. I love it. )

First of all, unroll your jelly roll and put the strips in a pleasing order. Or not, after all, they all look beautiful, so you could just swirl them around and take whichever comes to hand each time. For a medium size I used 30 strips, if small, it takes 28, if large, then 35. (There are 40 in the roll)

Trim off the selvedges:

Next, cut each strip in half to make 2 pieces, 2.5 x 22 in.

Lay your first two pieces wrong sides together, (the pattern on the pieces will keep changing, but the principle won't, it's just that I took hundreds of photos, and chose the best one for each step):

Next take 2 more strips and make a sandwich, with the above in the middle. Order of pieces is right side up, wrong side up, right side up, wrong side up (a close look at the following should make it clear):

Smooth these together, like so:

and stitch along the long edge, with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, as I have done in this picture, (even though the fabric has changed):

Next lay out one of another pair of strips:

and place your just stitched pair on top, see the order is always the same, right side up, wrong side up, right side up:

and add your second of the pair on top, wrong side up:

Pin:

and then stitch:

Continue to repeat the process with each new pair of strips until you have one pair left.

It's a good idea to backstitch at the beginning and end of each line of stitching, but if, like mine, your sewing machine doesn't like to backstitch at the end of the line, and bunches up the fabric annoyingly, you can always do this...

When you get to the end of the line of stitching:

swivel the fabric around like this:

all the way, and stitch back the way you came for 6 or so stitches before releasing and cutting your thread:

So, when you have your final pair of strips left, add them, and then press one long edge in by 1/4 inch:

Now lay your entire piece out somewhere, and admire them, taking a photo because they look so beautiful (and before the cat snuggles down on them):

Now stand at the long edge, take the left hand edge (the one you have pressed) in your left hand, and bring it to meet the right hand edge, giving it one twist:

lay it down:

Bring the short edges together:

Drop down the pressed edge, away from the other 3:

And stitch once more along the long edge. Here you can see that A is where you have stitched, and B is your last loose edge, with the pressed 1/4 inch. What you now have is a tube, with a twist in it, and a gap to close:

Bring that pressed edge up to cover the last raw edge, and pin in place:

Now handstitch using your favourite invisible method, like a ladder stitch.

Now you can topstitch all the way around the long edge, and there IS only one edge, that's the interesting mathematical phenomena of a mobius strip, so keeping stitching, all the way, one inch in from the edge until you get back to where you started. Add another line, a 1/4 inch in from that, and you have a double topstitch.

 

Your last job (phew), it's taken longer to write this than it did to make the wrap, lol, is to snip those raw edges to make a lovely fluffly ruffly edge:

Then wash (or just pop through your machine on a rinse and spin cycle) and tumble dry to free up the edges, and get rid of any lint:

Wear your wrap with a smile because the colours make you feel happy:

Bye for now,

Eleanor

x

 

Comments

[Caz]

This is awesome E!! Caz xx

[Doda]

that is gorgeous! Love the colours and the unique idea!

[Mandy]

I have never seen this before and it is GORGEOUS! Fab instructions as always (doesn't look an easy project to explain either) and the jellyroll is yummy. Loved this post. Hugs,
Mandy x

[Lynne V.]

Beautiful wrap and so cheerful. You make it sound very easy to make Eleanor.

[Debbie]

Eleanor this is beautiful and what lovely fabrics you have used. x

[Erika]

Great wrap and so colourful.
Hugs Erika.

[ifa]

What a clever wrap! You are right, the colours just scream happy to me too.

[Gabrielle]

This is wonderful. If I gave you the fabric would you make me one?! I know the point of this is to inspire me to make it myself but I just can not sew straight...! Maybe I should persevere a little more!

[jayne]

you are soo talented and look very glam too x