Iron Craft 2012

For this challenge, we were charged with making something to withstand the cold weather. I knew exactly what project that I wanted to do and I needed a quick and easy project because I was so wrapped up in making Valentine's Day projects.

Unfortunately, the fabric stores weren't cooperating with me for this project so I decided to use fabric that I could find locally. So the project for this week is a No-Sew Fleece Blanket.

You need two types of contrasting polar, no pill, fleece. I wanted to do a Purdue University Blanket with Purdue Fleece on one side and a solid black on the reverse. Unfortunately, JoAnn's was out of stock of the Purdue fleece.

(Purdue Fleece that was out of stock--urgghh)

So, as I hunted the fashion district of NYC, I finally decided on the manly camouflage fleece with the black fleece on the reverse. I bought two yards of each which almost covers me height-wise. If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought 2.5 to 3 yards of each material. What I failed to realize that you will lose 6 to 8 inches on each dimension once you start cutting the ties for the material.

After squaring off the material and pinning the two layers together, you cut off square blocks from each corner (the height and width of the squares should be equal to the length of the ties--in my case, my ties were 3" long so I cut a 3 in by 3 in block from each corner). If I had to do it again, I would have cut ties that were 4 in long and the blocks would have been 4 in by 4 in.

Next you cut ties that are 1.5 in wide and your desired length (3" in my case) along all four sides of the blanket. While keeping the blanket layers pinned, you simply tie square knots for each pair of ties (one top layer to one bottom layer).

Here is the finished project (on left), you can see the black and camo ties of the finished project. The ties are more evident in the close up (on right).

This is a very simply and fast project. It would be a great project for kids to do especially with the fleece materials that feature college and professional sports teams (see below). Plus, boy scouts and girl scouts can practice tying square knots. Here is a YouTube Tutorial. I wish that I had watched this version before making my blanket.

This is a great project because it really is forgiving of errors. The ties cover any cutting issues since they all get bunched tightly together on the edge of the blanket. Also, these blankets are so fast and easy to make, I think that they would make great specialty gifts.