Now that winter is upon us, I love to cuddle up on the couch with a cozy blanket and a great book, and living in North Dakota you can never have enough blankets. So, here is a quick, but very stylish and warm blanket to make.
Items needed:
2 pieces of coordinating fleece fabric - a teen/adult - 2 1/2 yards
- a child (ages 4 on up) - 1 1/2 yards
- an infant - 1 yard
Scissors or a rotary cutter with a mat
Coordinating thread
Straight pins
#5 Embroidery thread in a coordinating color. This is the thickets embroidery thread available in stores
Embroidery Needle or a regular sewing needle with a large eye
Sewing machine
The Process:
First, cut off all the salvage material on the edge of your fabric. Usually each piece of fabric you buy will have a little bit of salvage material on the edge that needs to be removed.
Next, layout your fabric on top of each other; wrong sides together. So, the bright, pretty sides will be facing out. Make sure each piece of fabric is the same size. Some fleece is a little wider than others.
Pin your fleece sides together all the way around. Then take it to your sewing machine and sew a 1/2 inch seam all the way around. Your two pieces of fleece fabric should now be sewn together. This seam will also be your guide for your blanket stitching.
Now we are going to blanket stitch all the way around the edge of the blanket, using our 1/2 inch hem as our guide. Thread your needle with a single strand of the coordinating embroidery thread and knot one end of the thread. If you have never done a blanket stitch before, I recommend practicing on an extra piece of fabric.
Bring your knot to the back side of the fabric so that you are anchoring the thread into the blanket. Next, make a a small "n" with the top of your thread and hold this with your fingers. Loop your thread behind your needle , and then pull the needle through the fabric allowing the edge thread to loop on the edge of the fabric.
Keep doing this all the way around your blanket. You will see little "n's" all the way around the edge of your blanket. When you come to the end of your thread and you need more thread, just knot the two ends of the thread together and keep stitching.
When you come to a corner, just do your best to make it look neat. When you have blanket stitched the whole blanket, tie a knot in your thread on the back side of the blanket.
There you have it! A beautiful fleece blanket.
Extra ideas:
- Use a single piece of fleece. You will still have to cut off the salvage part of the fabric and sew a 1/2 inch seam so you have a guide, but this makes a really nice light blanket to give as a gift or to put in your car.
- This is a great project to teach a little girl.
- You can use two prints of fleece - I like to use a print and a solid, because it is easier for my eyes to see the 1/2 seam guide. But two prints are like having two blankets in one.
- These also make great gifts!
