Sucess! A Fleece and Flannel Blanket! She loves it!!!

My grand daughter is hard to please in the handmade world. She just turned 17.. .need I say more? But she was at my house last month, saw the fleece/flannel blanket I made for her new baby brother and she loved the soft,soft fleece on the back and the soft flannel on the front and BEGGED me for one for her! I couldn't believe my ears!   She then noticed the tie-dyed flannel I had left over from when I made capes for my 2 other grand daughters  and loved that and begged me to make her a blanket with the fleece and flannel! I had made the blanket with no batting which made it softer and more "blanket" than a heavy, thick, stiff quilt.     And the satin binding just clinched the deal..she loved it too!

So I set out on a mission. She has a queen size bed so it had to be that large and I figured with no batting, it'd be easy enough to get my machine to FMQ the top with a meander stitch.  Went to the store to get more of that tie dye flannel.. and of course, couldn't find it! I sent her pic of other prints but nothing clicked with her. Finally, is literally wandering the store thinking, I came on an isle that had some fabric in it...and low and behold...there was a bolt of this tie dyed flannel print! I grabbed it and let out a holler of happiness and the lady standing there thought I was nuts until I explained, then she congratulated me! But the happiness only lasted a few minutes. There was only 2,1/2 yards on the bolt and it was in 2 pieces! I took it as I thought I might not be able to get a queen size, but I could at least get a twin out of it if I pieced the 2 pieces together properly. 

I had the blanket done in 3 days. and here it is!!

 She is doing her room in black with teal accents ( a true high schooler!). The back is a black fleece. The front.. blues, teals and blacks with a tad of pink accent.  Store bought Satin binding. And a queen size!!! Here's how I did it!

 I took the shortest piece and used that as the center piece. Then cut the longer piece in half and sewed half on each side of the middle section. I was a little leary of making seams in the tie-dye print as I thought it would distort the pattern, but thankfully, "tie-dye" is a motley pattern so it is hardly noticable! Check it out... I can just make out the seam on the left, but have to search for the seam on the right! So I was pleased with that!

 I used black fleece for the back, flannel for the front and no batting inside. I used an adhesive spray and pins and pinned it together, and did the FMQ wide, very wide, meander stitch. Worked out great.

My next troublesome part was sewing the binding to the edge of the blanket. Usually, I do the "roll over" procedure...where you sew the raw edges to the back, then roll the folded edge to the front and sew it down. Well, no roll over option here! Long story short, I placed the raw edges of the blanket inside the binding (2" Wrights) and then since one side is 1/4 inch shorter, that side went on the front and the tad longer was the back. This way as I sew the short side, it will grasp the longer side that I can't see.  I pinned literally exactly at the edge on the front, then turned it over to see where the pins were so that I was sure the edge was captured in the stitch line.

 
               FRONT                                                        BACK

 Next come the corners. I am pretty good at these mitered style corners with cotton, but you cant do them the same way with this satin so.. I  fiddled and got it matching and pinned. I had to make the stitches come to that center point on both sides.

 FRONT       BACK

 I used a large zigzag stitch all around and it took pretty good. I see some areas that could have been better, but.. for the most part.. it turned out pretty good. Taking out the not as good areas, would have made holes in the satin and it wasn't bad enough to do that! I also hand sewed the flaps/overlay portion of the corners from the corner point to the matching point to keep that all intact.

So... it is done. And only a few inches off being true queen size! Here it is on the back, folded up... it looks blue in the picture, but it is actually a beautiful black. The binding, again... matches the blues in the tie-dye perfectly, and is not this shiney! Camera... they certainly have a mind of their own!

 

Mission accomplished!

 My obsession of always doing a little extra... I had  a little bit of the flannel left so I made her a pillow case...the flannel being the base of the case and black for the cuff and a teal for the trim! I forgot to take a picture of it!

 So I rolled the blanket up, put it in a gift bag, and her birthday was Monday.  She was thrilled. She texted me later that night saying.. "IDK if you are up, but this blanket it perfect!!!" Then next day she texted me saying she could hardly get out of bed that morning because it was so warm and cozy!

Now, I want to make myself one! I am going to Joann's to see if that fleece is on sale or use my 50% off coupon and at least get enough to use for the back and later decide on what the front will be! I have a bed spread I am currently creating (in my mind!) but this will be the perfect blanket!!

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