Sweetie Belle Makes a Scarf
That is Certainly Something
Rarity pranced into her home, placing her hat on the coat rack, and carefully folding her scarf. She hung it beside the hat, and smiled. There was no work to catch up on, and she was already quite ahead on dress orders. Today seemed perfect for relaxation. She put her kettle on the stove, and set out a bag of tea. She placed a blue china cup and saucer on the counter, and waited patiently. She enjoyed the silence of her home, and even found the snipping of pinking shears therapeutic. Her ears perked up at the sound once she realized that there was no logical reason for it.
Rarity turned off the stove eye. She opened the door to her workshop, one eye half shut in a wince. She carefully eyed the room. Sweetie Belle sat in the floor, snipping at a bolt of yellow fleece. Sweetie set the pinking shears down and smiled.
"Sweetie?" Rarity opened the door fully. "What are you doing?"
"I made a scarf!" Sweetie wrapped the tattered fleece around her neck. "What do you think?"
"Well, that is." Rarity's eyes swept across the cluttered room. "That is certainly something."
"Do you think I did well?" Sweetie asked.
"It is quite a first attempt, Sweetie," Rarity commented, "But I think you could do much better with a little help."
"Really!" Sweetie Belle smiled, "Because learning from you would be great!"
"But first, we'll have to clean this place up." Rarity began placing bolts of fabric back into their proper places. "It's not possible to work properly in such a mess."
"Sure," Sweetie began placing spools of thread onto a thread rack, and then picked up a small wooden circle. "Rarity?"
"Yes?" Rarity called over her shoulder.
"What's this?" Sweetie raised up the wooden circle.
"That's an embroidery hoop, darling." Rarity placed it into the cupboard. "I use it to hold the fabric tight while I hoofsew designs into it."
"Can the designs be anything?" Sweetie continued putting away thread.
"That depends on the skill of the mare in question," Rarity admitted, "I don't do it very often, so it takes me quite a while to do it right."
"Neat." Sweetie slammed the final spool down on its peg.
"Now," Rarity pulled out a ream of pattern paper and a pencil. "We have to make a pattern, first."
"Why do we need to do that?" Sweetie tried to walk beside her, but tripped on the frayed end of her 'scarf'.
"To make sure it fits," Rarity looped a tailor's tape across Sweeties neck, and marked the length on the paper. "How wide do you want it to be?"
"I'm not really sure." Sweetie Belle kicked off the frayed yellow fleece.
"Alright." Rarity measured the height of her neck. "That should be fine."
"That seems like a lot of work for a rectangle," Sweetie commented, "Can we add more to it?"
"Of course," Rarity tapped her noggin with the pencil, "What would you think about gathered panels towards the bottom?"
"Ok!" Sweetie Belle agreed, "Can it flare out a little bit at the ends?"
"Of course." Rarity made the markings, "But don't get too carried away with it. Simplicity is a requirement for first attempts, and has a certain beauty to it."
"What do we do now?" Sweetie propped her forelegs on the table to get a better view of the paper.
"We select the fabric." Rarity perused through her bolts of fabric.
"I want to pick it," Sweetie Belle walked beside her.
"That's fine, Sweetie," Rarity smiled, "Just keep in mind, some colors don't work well together."
"Do you think we could have two colors?" Sweetie asked, "One for the main part, and another for the panels?"
"Yes, I think that is a lovely idea," Rarity agreed.
"Ok," Sweetie picked out a white, and a purple, "How about these?"
"The color is fine," Rarity ran a hoof down the bolts of cloth, "But these are silk. They won't do anything for the cold."
"What fabric works then?" Sweetie asked.
"This fleece will do nicely," Rarity pulled out fabrics in similar colors, "What do you think?"
"Alright!" Sweetie jumped beside her, "Now what?"
"We cut off what fabric we'll need," Rarity explained.
"I can do that." Sweetie grabbed the pinking shears.
"Not with that." Rarity took the shears from her, "The pinking shears don't leave a straight edge."
"Then why do you have them?" Sweetie asked.
"Focus, Sweetie," Rarity slid her tailor's shears through the fabric, and placed the bolts back into storage.
"Now what?" Sweetie jumped up.
"We pin the fabric to the pattern." Rarity gave her sister a tin filled with ball head pins. "These will keep the fabric in place while we cut it. Don't pin directly on the lines, just a little to the side of them."
Rarity watched as Sweetie placed the pins in one by one.
"Now we cut it," She told Sweetie, and gave her a rotary cutter, "Just slide that down the lines, and make sure you don't cut inside them. Slowly now. You can do it faster once you get more experience."
Sweetie Belle lifted up the fabric proudly.
"Now what?" She asked.
"We sew." Rarity walked to her machine. "Or rather, we prepare the machine for sewing."
"How do we do that?" Sweetie scooted a stepping stool over to the sewing machine.
"Pick out your thread, you need something that matches the fabric, I recommend the purple." Rarity guided her. "Open that lower compartment there. Do you see that little metal rim? That's the bobbin. Take that out and set it on that little metal pole there. Alright swing the pole over to the secondary position. Now thread the bobbin. Press down on the pedal."
"Rarity." Sweetie looked down at the floor. "I can't reach it."
Rarity placed the pedal on the stepping stool. Sweetie Belle pressed down on it with her back hoof, and the thread wound around the bobbin.
"That's cool," Sweetie commented, "How much do we need."
"That will be enough," Rarity observed, "Now, place the pole back in its primary position. Snip the thread. Lift the bobbin. Wind the loose end counter-clockwise around the bobbin. Place it back in that compartment."
"That's a lot of work." Sweetie looked up to Rarity. "What now?"
"You thread the machine," Rarity pointed to it, "Take the end of the thread. Bring it up and under that piece right there. Place it through the rocker arm."
"What's a rocker arm?" Sweetie asked.
"It's that metal hook that you can just barely see." Rarity pointed it out.
"Ok," Sweetie pushed the thread through it.
"Now you'll place the thread through the needle," Rarity gestured at it, "Carefully."
"I don't think I can," Sweetie muttered, "The eye is really small."
"Here." Rarity gave her a coin with a wire loop on it. "Place that through the back of the eye. Place the thread through the wire loop, and just pull the coin back."
"I got it!" Sweetie smiled. "I got it."
"Good job," Rarity placed the cloth on the sewing machine, "Set up is always the most difficult part. But now that we're done with that, the rest will be quite easy."
Rarity guided her sister's hooves on either side of the sewing machine. They smiled and chatted while they worked, and Rarity would occasionally interrupt the banter to give her sister some advice. She had to use a seam ripper to correct a mistake only once. In a while, Sweetie had a proper scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Thank you." She hugged Rarity. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You're welcome, Sweetie." Rarity returned her embrace. "Now if you don't mind, I'll be going to bed. Beauty sleep and all that."
"Thank you," Sweetie yelled again.
Sweetie Belle lifted up her new scarf and took a close look at it. She felt a strong sense of pride in her work, but it still felt incomplete. She riffled through Rarity's sewing supplies, looking for anything that could complete her scarf.
Rarity rose earlier than she might have on any other morning. It was a matter of responsibility. Whenever Sweetie Belle spent the night, Rarity would wake up early to send her off to school. This morning she did not find Sweetie in her room. She looked around the house, and walked into the sewing room.
Sweetie Belle was seated in front of the sewing table, her head resting on the table. She was snoring peacefully, and one hoof lay on the scarf. Rarity walked up beside her to wake her, and stopped.
On one end of the scarf three diamonds had been embroidered just above the gathered panels. On the other end, the embroidery hoop was still tightened down on the fabric. A half completed mare with a purple mane and blue eyes smiled at her. Rarity nuzzled her sister.