Chevron Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

I love a good chevron print! This one is home decor weight cotton from Hancocks (scored on sale!). After seeing a few great examples of these faux chenille baby blankets (HERE and HERE), I dcided to give it a try! Blankets are such a traditional gift for a baby, but this one seems to have just a little something different and special about it. I absolutely love the way it feels, kind of heavy like a quilt, but soft and fluffy because of the flannel. I will be making more and doing a couple of things differently, even though I am really happy with how this one turned out!

All you need for this project is a rectangle or square of home decor weight fabric in your chosen size (don't pre-shrink), 3 pieces of flannel in the same size (also, don't pre-shrink) and a piece of bias binding long enough to cover the edges of your blanket.

Layer the cotton and flannels together and pin every few inches so that they don't slip as you are quilting. I recommend a walking foot. If you use a patterned fabric, like I did, just stitch with the design, the rows need to be no more than an inch apart. This step takes a few hours to complete.

Next, put on a good movie, grab a really sharp pair of scissors and cut through the 3 layers of flannel between every row of stitches-be sure not to snip the home decor weight cotton.

(These next two pictures show rows that were much too far apart, I explain later that I had to go back and fix that. Still, it gives you an idea of what you're going for.)



Now bind the eges of your blanket. I used flannel, but I'll probably use cotton next time. I stitched over the binding 3 times just because I like the way it looks.

Next, you just wash it in the washing machine (I used those Shout "Color Catcher" sheets, since I had light, dark and bright red fabrics and it worked really well, no bleeding). Then throw it in the dryer on high heat. When you pull it out....ta da!! It's a miracle, soft, evenly frayed and ready for some baby love.

TIPS:

1) Next time, I will range my flannels from lightest on the outside to dark the closest to the cotton (I did gray, red, blue from the bottom up, but I wish I had done gray on the outside). The gray (which I love paired with the mustard yellow) got a little lost against the back of the cotton. I think that would also have given a little more depth to the overall look. I like the idea of neutrals with pops of bold color peeking out.

2) Flannel worked ok for the binding, but it didn't wash quite as well as I had hoped. It pills a bit.

3) I started out with my rows of stitches WAAAy too far apart, so after washing it looked ridiculous. I had to go back and sew two more lines for every row already there, holding the flannel down as I went. Miraculously it still turned out (flannel is very forgiving and the fraying covers a multitude of evils), but it was a pain in the you know what!!

This is by no means a perfect example of a faux-chenille blanket, but hopefully it gives you the basics and some food for thought. I know I would be ecstatic to get one of these as a gift, heck, I'm ecstatic to GIVE one of these as a gift!