How to Fold a Square Silk Scarf Into a Band
Many of the ways to style a square silk scarf begin with folding the scarf from a square into a band. There are two main ways to do this, and which you choose depends on how long and how wide you want the resulting band to be.
Diagonal fold bands v. Rectangular fold bands
Diagonal fold bands are created by folding the scarf from corner to corner. Rectangular fold bands are created by folding the scarf from edge to edge.
The most important difference is that diagonal folds create a longer scarf. They also create bands with pointy ends, where the ends are only one layer of silk rather than many overlapping layers. This is useful for styles like the Ascot, or the Band with Scarf Clasp.
The length of a diagonal fold band will be 48”, or 4 feet, for a 34” scarf and 74”, or 6 feet and 2 inches, for a 53” scarf. The length of a rectangular fold band will be the same as the size of the scarf, that is, 34” or 2 feet and 10 inches, for a 34” scarf, and 53” or 4 feet and 5 inches, for a 54” scarf.
Depending on your neck size and how far down you want the ends to hang, you may prefer a longer diagonal fold or a shorter rectangular fold for styles like the Simple Drape, European Loop, or Around the Neck Drape.
Diagonal fold bands
Begin by laying a silk scarf flat on a table, with the front of the scarf face down.
Fold one corner in toward the opposite corner, not quite reaching the opposite corner. Then fold the opposite corner toward the far side of the scarf, which is now a straight edge. You now have a band, but a very wide one. Keep folding opposite sides in toward each other, overlapping but not quite reaching the opposite side. Two more folds will give you an appropriate width for most bands, but you can continue folding to create a narrower band, for example, for use as an ascot.
Alternatively, beginning with the silk scarf laying flat on a table, fold opposite corners in toward the center, so that the tips of the corners meet in the center of the scarf. Then fold the opposite sides in toward the center so that each side meets in the center; repeat this process until you get a band of the desired width.
Rectangular fold bands
Begin by laying a silk scarf flat on a table, with the front of the scarf face down.
Fold the scarf in half, bringing one edge across to the opposite edge. Repeat until the band is the desired width.
Alternatively, beginning with the scarf laying flat on a table, fold opposite edges in toward the center so that the edges meet in the center of the scarf. Repeat until the band is the desired width.
But I really love the bee! Or, fun with combinatorics.
Part of the fun of scarf folding is deciding what part of the scarf’s design you want to feature in the finished piece. You can fold a scarf to showcase any part of the scarf’s design — for example, the gossamer-winged bee from artist C.M. Duffy’s scarf in the current collection.
We’ll illustrate this here with rectangular folds. Take the square scarf and imagine dividing it into eight bands of equal width that we will label a to h, like so:
You can fold this scarf to showcase any of a through h on the finished band — and, indeed, to showcase any pair of sides, like ad or eg on the two sides of the finished band.
1. For example, if we start by folding h → a, that is, folding the scarf in half with band h on top of band a, we will have a scarf whose sides are stacked:
h g f e
a b c d
1.a. If we then fold e → h, we get:
d c
e f
h g
a b
And finally, if we fold c → d, we get a band with visible sides ab; if, instead, we fold b → a, we get a band with visible sides cd.
1.b. If we go back to step 1 and, instead of folding e → h, we fold a → d, then we get:
f e
c d
b a
g h
And if we fold f → e, we get a band with visible sides gh; if, instead, we fold g → h, we get a band with visible sides fe.
So you can see with just these simple folds we can get bands with visible sides ab, cd, ef, or gh, meaning we can get any of sides a to h to be visible in the finished band!
We can use other fold orders to get different combinations of visible sides as well, for example, different combinations like ed or ah.
2. For example, if we start with our scarf as in the picture and fold a → d and h → e, we get:
b a h g
c d e f
2.a. If we then fold b → a and g → h, we get:
c f
b g
a h
d e
And if we then fold c → f, we get a band with visible sides de, while if we instead fold d → e, we get a band with visible sides cf. These combinations are different from the first combinations we arrived at above.
2.b. If we go back to step 2, but instead of folding b → a and g → h, we fold c → d and f → e, we get:
a h
d e
b f
e g
And if we fold a → h, we get a band with visible sides eg, while if we instead fold e → g, we get a band with visible sides ah.
You can have fun playing with other patterns of folds, or with diagonal folds, to create bands showing any combination of parts of a scarf. See, sometimes math is both useful and fun.
Happy folding!
— Mouton Noir