Pocketed Infinity Scarf

Let me preface this post with: I am the worst selfie taker in the world. For some reason it takes a lot of concentration for me to take a photo of myself. As a result, I always looks strange. Moving along...

We are going to go on a little vacation soon and while at the airport between the four of us, I will need to juggle six passports. Why, you may ask. Both K and T need two - one American and one Japanese - plus mine and Y's. Embarking on an 8 hour flight with the two little boys, my bag is going to be a mess of toys, books, snacks, clean diapers, and changes of clothes. Finding passports between all of that is going to be quite the task. One thing that I always take on any flight is a scarf - easy to take off when it's toasty, simple to put on when I get a bit chilly. Given that a scarf is a must, I figured I could just devise a way to have the scarf securely hold our passports. The pocketed scarf was born.


I started out with 60cm each of two different colors of jersey. The jersey I picked was the tube kind, so after cutting two 30cm lengths out of each color, I cut a slit down one of the folded ends of each of the four pieces.

Next I sewed the grey rectangles together to create one 30cm by really long rectangle, and the same for the pink.

Then I looked through my scraps to find a fabric that I liked and that was big enough for the welt pocket. Keep in mind that you will need two rectangles of the same size to create the one pocket. Once I found one, I cut the fabric in half and put one half on top of the gray fabric where I wanted the pocket to be and marked with pins about 2cm in from the edge of the pocket fabric.

Then I pinned the gray and pink rectangles together. My fabric didn't have a right side, but if yours does, you will want to be sure to pin them right sides together.

Then I sewed the gray and pink rectangles together leaving an opening where the pocket will go. I stopped sewing at the blue pin and started again at the white pin (see the photo above).

Following this tutorial, I worked on the welt pocket. I will roughly show what I did, but trust me, take a look at that tutorial because it is much better explained that I could ever do. I placed the pocket fabric on the scarf fabric, both right side up. That was a mistake, however, the pocket fabric should be right side down. Then mark on the pocket fabric where the zipper will go. Draw a rectangle about 1cm tall by the length of your zipper, being sure to center the height of the rectangle on the slit between the gray and pink fabric. Also draw a line down the middle (where the slit is). Stop about 1cm from the short edges of the rectangle and draw two diagonal lines to the corners to create a triangle on the edge.

Super carefully, sew along your rectangle. Since our main fabric isn't one single piece, I was super careful to not sew the seam allowance into the pocket. To do this, I started by flipping the allowance down (the gray allowance was folded to the pink side) and sewing the 1/2cm on the edge of the rectangle, across the top and down the other 1/2cm edge.

Then I flipped the allowances (this time the pink allowance folded to the gray side) and sewed the bottom half of the rectangle - starting with the 1/2cm edge, across the bottom and up the final 1/2cm edge.

Then cut the pocket material down the middle and on the little diagonal lines as well.

Flip the pocket through the slit and iron it all down.

Line up your zipper - mine was super long. No big deal, just cut it to the length you need. Pin it on and super carefully sew it on.

Flip over to the right side of the fabic and admire your work! The hard part is done.

Next put the other piece of pocket fabric face down on top of the piece that is sewn to the scarf and sew all around the outside of the pocket. Then take a look! Your zippered welt pocket is done!

At this point, you might want to anchor the pocket to the scarf. I doubt this is necessary, but I think it would just help to keep the pocket in place once you put something in it.

Sew the long edge of the scarf together - in my case, the pink to the gray.

Once the two long ends of the scarf are sewn together, reach through the tube and pull one end of the scarf up so that the open ends meet. The right sides should be together.

Sew around the circle, in my case, pink to pink, gray to gray, leaving a little opening to pull it all right side out.

Pull it right-side out and all you have left to do is to sew up the little turning hole.

Wrap it around your neck and start throwing things in that pocket! (Putting my keys into the pocket, while taking a selfie clearly takes a lot of concentration.) So far I have used this pocket to hold my keys, my phone, pacifiers, toys for T, and some cash. It turns out that having a pocket there is quite handy!