This tutorial shows you how to make a faux fur baby blanket in under an hour. Although the measurements are for a crib size, by sewing larger pieces of fabric together, you can easily make a throw size or larger.
Materials needed:
1-1/4 yard – Flannel
1-1/3 yard – Faux Fur
Rotary cutter or scissors
Marking pen
Ruler
Straight pins
INSTRUCTIONS:
Cut your flannel into a 40 x 40 inch square.
Cut the faux fur into a 46 x 46 inch square.
On a large flat surface, lay down your faux fur wrong side facing up. Place the flannel on top, right side up. Center the flannel on the fabric, This is just to give you an idea of placement. You want to make sure your faux fur extends 3 inches beyond the edge of the flannel fabric, all the way around. This extra fabric will form the border for the front of your blanket.
Go ahead and remove the flannel top so you are only working with the faux fur for now.
On the wrong side of the faux fur, measure 3 inches up from the corner and place a mark. Using that mark as a guide, draw a line from edge to edge. Cut along the drawn line with your scissors or rotary cutter. Repeat this step for the remaining 3 corners of the faux fur fabric.
Now it’s time to sew your corners. We’re going to build a pocket for your flannel to be placed into.
Starting with one corner of the fur, where you cut out the 3 inch triangle, bring the right sides together. You can pin the fabric in place if you like, but I chose not to use pins. Start at the folded edge and stitch a 1/4″ seam. It’s okay if you make this seam a little larger – just be consistent with all seams.
Turn your seam inside out. Use your finger to poke the seam into the corner. You’ve now formed a mitered corner. Repeat this step for the remaining corners.
Now that you have your faux fur border made, we need to place the flannel inside. Center your 40″ flannel square on top of the faux fur right side up. Starting with one side, push the flannel inside the faux fur border. Take your time and make sure the flannel is pushed all the way inside to the fold and is covered completely by the faux fur border.
Smooth the flannel in place so that the flannel is completely flat and there are no folds.
Once that is done, it’s time to pin, pin, pin it all in place. For this step, it’s best if you have long pins, so that you can see them. Longer pins are more visible in the deep pile of the faux fur. Begin pinning the edge of the faux fur and flannel together, all the way around the blanket. The faux fur is a bit slippery, so you want to use several pins to hold it in place and keep the fabric from sliding as you’re stitching.
I told my daughter, “take a picture of my hands as I’m pinning….” This is the picture she took. Lot more than my hands. And, yes, I am sewing in my pajamas — I know I’m not the only one who does this. LOL! I just had to insert this photo because I thought it was funny.
Okay, play time is over. Now it’s time to stitch this all together. I used a wide zig zag stitch. On my machine, I made the stitch as wide as I could get it. I also enlarged the length between the stitches. You may have to play with your machine settings to get the desired width/length.
Begin zig zag stitching the raw edge of the faux fur, through all thicknesses, all the way around the blanket. Don’t worry, this is “fur-giving” and with your matching thread, the stitches are not as visible.
Here is a picture of the finished front edge. With the matching thread, you can barely see the zigzag stitching. The second picture is of the back – because I wanted you to see how well the stitching blends in with the fur.
And you’re done! There’s no need to do any quilting on top. However, if you choose to add some light quilting to your blanket, that’s fine.
There are no rules as to what fabric you can use for this blanket. I love using flannel because of all the fun colors and designs, but I’ve also used cotton for the inside.
Instead of faux fur, I have used faux Sherpa. The Sherpa is my favorite, but my local Joann’s no longer carries the “washable” version. And don’t forget about using Minky or other cuddle fabrics. Any plush, soft fabric will work. NOTE: check the fabric label before purchasing, to make sure your faux fur is machine washable. A lot of the faux fur out there is dry clean only. Nobody wants a baby blanket that is dry clean only. LOL. So have fun and experiment with different fabrics. I made this version in less than an hour. It’s a perfect last minute baby shower gift.
Here are some examples of blankets I made with faux sherpa and a smaller border.
Mary Davis
Mary Go Round Quilts
