My first sewing project... Ty & Zoe's memory blankets are done!! All their sweet little shirts from the past few years on a blanket to have sweet memories forever! I'm gonna say they like them! Ty wanted FIRE edges to make it more manly. I say it turned out great! Now both my babies have a special blanket from Mama :)
1. I saved all thier special shirts from the past few years that they can't wear anymore. I cut out an 8 inch by 8 inch square out of poster board and starting cutting. You can use the fancy cutter from your local craft store, or I used plain old scissors, though nice scissors that cut easy.
2. Now all my squares are cut out. I layed them out in the order I wanted to sew them together.
3. Now that I have all my squares layed out, I stacked them as if they were in rows left to right starting from top to bottom. As you can see I ended up changing the rows on both blankets to what my girl's squares reflect, 6 squares across and 9 squares down. But you can make yours however you want... with more squares or less squares, etc.
4. I used Fusible Interfacing and cut/ironed them to each square so they would sew together easier. You don't have to do that, I just chose to get all the help I could get since it was my first time sewing.
5. Now we're ready to sew! And I wish I had pictures of this next part, but sadly I don't :(
First, I sewed each square on the very top row. Take my boys square for example. I layed those first two squares next to each other as shown in the above picture. Folded the green stripe square over to the left on top of the first red square and sewed down the right side. When done, flip that green stripe square back over to the right and you have your first two squares sewed together. Next I took the next square of grey and layed it next to the green stripe square and folded the gray over to the left over the green stripe square and sewed the right side. When done, flip that grey square back over to the right and you have your three squares. Keep this going until you have your first top row complete.
6. Now you are ready for your next row, which you will do the same exact steps listed above in step 5. After you are done with your first and second row of strips, lay your second row of sewn squares under your first row of sewn squares. Flip the bottom row of squares over top the first row so they are now facing each other and sew them together by the top row's bottom and the second row's top. When done, flip the bottom row back down and you now have your first two rows complete. Keep this going until you are completely finished with all your squares.
7. Now its time to sew your big sheet of squares on to your fleece. I purchased 4 1/3 yard of purple fleece for Zoe (top and bottom), and for Ty's I purchased 2 1/4 blue fleece (top) and 2 1/4 flames fleece (bottom). Before I sewed the squares on the top fleece, I ironed all the uneven and raggedy edges of the squares down so it would be easier to sew on. Then, I pinned it all down along the edges to keep it straight and where I wanted it right in the center of the fleece. I also stuck extra pins here and there throughout the squares to keep it straight and flat as possible. Now it is time to sew the entire set of squares on your top fleece. Also, pick a few squares to sew a little line through to hold it down to the fleece, especially for when its time to wash in the machine, helps keep it all together.
8. Lay your finished top fleece on top of your bottom fleece (I used the entire living room floor for a large flat working area). Trim the edges so its all even and equal on both sides of fleece. Now its time to cut your edges and tie your blanket!
9. Cut a square off each corner before you start cutting your strips. Then cut aprx 1 inch strips all the way around. And about 5 inches long if you want them a little lengthy like mine or maybe 3-4 inches long if you like the look of the shorter knots. Remember as you tie, your length is going to get shorter than the original strip before tying.
10. Now its time to make your knots! Keep in mind that fleece makes two of the sides stretchy. So just be gentle when you get to those two sides. No big deal. But still tie pretty tight. You want to start in the middle of a section of strips. I don't know why, but it makes it easier to keep straight and even. The Hobby Lobby lady was kind enough to show me how to tie these suckers so I will do my best in explaining how I did it. Its basically a double knot. I began with tying two strips together like tying shoe laces so that after you make that first tie, you are holding both ends on the sides. Then your second knot ties up and down the opposite way, taking one strip up through the hole so that your finished strips will lay on top of each other. This is especially important if you have a different color fleece underneathe because you want that to flip up to be the top layered strip all around your blanket like in my son, Ty's, blanket. His fire flames ended up on top because his bottom fleece was the fire flames. Make sure all your knots are the same so it hs a finished look. Try your first few knots not so tight until you get the hang of it and then make sure all of the knots are being tied very tight.
 |
| These are such special memories to be cherished forever! |
