DIY Thursday: Monster Blanket

 As I was contemplating how I wanted to decorate my little guy's room I wanted either dinosaurs or monsters.  I decided on monsters =)  I made these awesome decorations to go in his room. So I then tried to find some cute cool (I am not allowed to call anything of my little boy's cute....he gets very mad because he is cool and awesome, not cute! =)  ) bedding.  He would be moving from a toddler bed to a twin sized bed so he needed a new bed set.  All of the monster themed bedding was not exactly very cute...and I didn't want Monsters, Inc stuff either.  Then I thought "How hard could it be to just make a blanket?"  I had made several receiving blankets so I figured it wouldn't be much harder to just do a big version.  It turned out that the sewing part wasn't much harder, but it involved a bit more math....yuck!  So here is what I did, and I hope I can make it clear as mud for you =)

First of all, I had to order my monster fabric online.....and it was $10 a yard!  and I couldn't use a coupon =(  So I just got a yard and a half, but if you want to use a bigger piece, it doesn't really change how to make the blanket so go for it =).  Then I had to find my matching fabrics.  I was just going to sew my monster piece onto a plain piece of fabric.  If you are really good at sewing you could probably just piece some pieces around as a border....but that would have taken me using my brain and I wasn't feeling it....so I just slapped it on a big piece of fabric.

For my big fabric, I got 5 yards of fabric.  I wanted it to be about 68 inches wide, and the fabric was 44 inches so I was going to have to sew 2 pieces together.  My original plan was to  cut the 5 yards in half, then sew those halves together and then trim the sides to 68 inches, but leaving a few inches for the hemming.

Then I realized if I cut the fabric into thirds, measured 68 (actually around 68 1.2 for the hem/seams) inches, and then cut. and then just sew the tops and bottoms together, It would look better having horizontal seams rather than a vertical seam.

So them I just had to trim my length, which I wanted it to be around 90 inches.  If you do it that way, you can probably get away with about 4 yards of fabric.

Once I had the big fabric sewn together I need to place my pattern piece on it.  I measured the sides and tops and centered my piece on, and then pinned it tightly in place.

I then sewed it on.  I just did a regular ol' zig zag stitch.  When you want to mark your spots, I just used some chalk to mark my places since it wipes off really easily.

The next step was doing my bottom piece.  I had to sew the fabric like I did the top piece.  Once I had it sewn together and trimmed to the size I wanted, I then put the rights sides together with my top piece and pinned the edges together.

Use lots of needles so you can get it flat and not bunched up.

I'm not sure the exact measurement of the seam I did, but it was to the 2nd line on my sewing machine (I'm still new to the sewing world so I don't know all the terms and whatnot).

I sewed 3 sides, leaving the top open.  I then turned it right sight out.  I got my quilt batting and put it inside.  They had the stuff that was already measured out to fit a twin sized comforter so that make it nice and easy =)  It was also iron on so once I got it in place, I ironed it so It would move around while I was sewing the rest.

 I then folded the top and ironed the hem and then was able to sew it.  I then did a zigzag stitch around the whole thing just give it a bit of a design on the edges.

I knew the batting wouldn't stay in place when we had to wash it (and since this was for a 3 year old boy, I knew we would be washing it).  Then I got some yarn, and just tied it like a regular ol' quilt.  It was super easy.  I just did them in random places because I didn't want to measure.

I know this isn't the greatest of tutorials, but I just wanted to show that even a beginner can make a big blanket.  Now just a warning....if you are wanting to make a comforter hoping to make it cheaper than buying one....it probably won't happen.  Even though I used coupons on everything but the monster piece, it was still a little bit more than buying a comforter.  I think it was about $50 total.  But it was worth it to me because I got exactly what I wanted and this will be a blanket that will be special to my little guy =)

It was hard to get the full blanket in the picture, but you get the idea.  I would have liked to have had the monster piece bigger, but at $10 a yard I was lucky to do what I did.

Ian is pleased with his blanket.  He slept with it before I even had his room done to put it in.  His sister even thought it was nice and warm.  I will be doing a similar blanket for her to match her new sister's.....but that will probably be around March......

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