Quick Project: Light Blanket

You remember the fabric I bought at Squam?

It was a piece that would fit the top of our bed, but I knew I would need something to make it a little bigger so it would hang over the edge some. Soon after Squam, I went to Joann's to see what they had in knits. Knits that look like knits; not just jersey knits.

They didn't have a lot, but I was open to almost anything. The fabric was pretty wild so it could carry off "quirky" pretty well. I ended up with this bold pattern:

Last Saturday I finally took the time to go to my mother-in-law's to use her serger. I could maybe get this done on a sewing machine, but there was no sense if she had a serger I could use. It's the exact tool needed for working with knits.

She had it all set up for me when I got there so I could dive right in! I don't remember the details, but I didn't have a lot of choice about how much fabric I got at Joann's. I guess I must of finished the bolt. I don't think it was quite as long as what I wanted, but I decided I would make do.

I started by laying it out on the carpet and folding it in fourths the long way (see above). I cut on all the folds and that gave me four strips to work with. Whatever width border I got, I got!

Next I sewed strips to opposite side of the blanket center:

I knew the strips were longer than the center piece, so I didn't pin or anything.

When I went to put on the last two strips, you can see that I didn't quite have enough to take advantage of the full width:

The piece that's "upside right" is where I started and the
edges are even. The "wrong side up" piece is where
I ended the seam and I definitely didn't have enough length.

On the first one (above) I didn't pin and one side matched and it was short on the end. For the second one, I thought I'd better pin to make sure I wasn't too short on the end, and it all worked out (...in the end. Ba-dum-bump.)

There's nothing like a serger to make you really feel like a professional:

After that, I cut off any extra bits so the edges were all straight and set up a rolled hem:

That took the most fussing of the whole project but I got it looking pretty good. It probably would have been better with a stretchy nylon yarn, but we didn't have any and I wasn't going to worry about it. Fussy knitter--maybe. Fussy serger? Apparently not. (Should that be sergerer?)

After miles and miles of rolled hem,

I had a finished blanket:

Here it is on my bed:

Not a bad fit, although I wouldn't have complained if the borders were longer on the sides.

Project Stats
Time: about 2 hours
Materials: knit fabrics, about $25 total
I finished it in time for a couple of warmer nights when i was glad to have our summer quilt off the bed, but I think tonight will be cold enough I will have to add another blanket again. This has been the summer of blanket musical chairs.

All in all, a very satisfying project.