Bound Fleece Blanket Tutorial

61" x 72" double fleece throw with quilt binding

Let me just say I did not know that I would be able to put a regular cotton binding on this stretchy knit and fleece fabric but I did!!! You can too. Here is what I learned and what I implemented from my past of sewing knit clothing. 

1. Lay out both pieces of fleece/knit, plush, minky or whatever you want to use.  Put Wrong sides together.  Square up and trim so they match in size without stretching or pulling. 

2. Watch out for designs that have a straight line across the fabric as you want them cut evenly. 

3. I cut quilt binding out making it 3" wide to cover the thickness of my fleece and knit. Since I have already squared up my blankets I could now measure my binding and mark where the corners needed to be. The idea is to have the binding the same size on each opposite side and not to stretch or pull.  I put safety pins in each corner and pinned it down. Before taking it to the sewing machine I pinned the two layers together just like pin basting a quilt. 

4. I made sure that I folded the corners over just as if I was sewing them so I had the right about on each side to fit. Pin well. 

5. Take it all to the sewing machine. I was surprised how well this all stayed together in transporting from carpet to sewing machine. I will say the fleece was thick and squished out from under the binding. I had to let it and then trimmed away the excess fleece later so the binding would fit around the thickness. 

6. Notice I used my blind hem walking foot. This saved me so much time by moving the needle over to the far Right and letting the center metal hemmer hold the binding down and also helped it from slipping out from under the foot.  I used a stiletto type stick to help fold over and hold the binding. I also sewed this down with a stitched zigzag stitch that caught everything. 

7. The binding was a little waffly and I expected that as I made it fit. The fleece and knit were washed before starting but the binding was not. I wet down just the binding afterwards and let it dry. It shrunk up and took the waffle right out. I did notice on one side that it even pulled a little tight but it lays fine. 

8. Final step was to tie a bit of this together. If I had a long arm I might have tried to stitch a few straight lines.  Since I knew I could not handle on my home machine putting a few ties in was the best I could do. I only did 4 lines of ties about every 6" in the snowflake part of the design on front. It holds it enough to keep it all together. This is super soft and warm due to the fleece/knit combo. 

I never knew this would work so well. I have more fleece in my closet so I will probably try this again. 

 Not sure you can see this but this is the receipt that was in the bag (yes still in the bag) from  January of 1997.  This store is no longer in business but back in the day I worked there. I have found other receipts among my fabrics but this might be the oldest. I can finally check that off my list. :)

I hope you try this if you want a quick (non-quilty) gift. If you make a fleece throw using my simple method let me know and send me picture. 

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday