Who knew making a lap rug could be so easy? Choose your fabric, add binding and you have a new blanket.
I was given these fabrics quite some time ago and it feels good to finally have them out of my stash and made into something I'll use.
The first one is double sided fleece. I know it won't fray, and probably doesn't need anything on the edges, but I still wanted to add a border. I looked at a few tutorials, but couldn't find anything that appealed, so decided I'd just add binding the same as on a quilt.
Instead of the usual 2½", I cut the binding to 3". As you would with quilt binding, I machined it to the first side. Initially I was going to finish it off with machine stitching, too, but I ended up hand stitching it - not at all hard to do, but relatively time consuming.
I hand stitched the binding on both the shirt quilt and the Barcelona strip and flip quilt. In both cases I found it quite therapeutic. But not so on the fleece blanket, even though it was much smaller, I found the hand stitching rather tedious and was wishing I'd chosen machine stitching instead.
So, why it is it I enjoy hand stitching binding on quilts, but not on a simple fleece blanket? I think it's because I expect a quilt to take a long time, whereas I expected the fleece blanket to be very quick to whip up.
Once I was finished I was more than happy with the time invested.
I don't know what the second fabric is. It looks a lot like the material some baby and hospital blankets are made from.
This one I did machine stitch and it took next to no time.
It's still Winter here in Australia, so I'll still get plenty of use out of my new lap rugs this year. I'm sitting at my computer now with a blanket on my lap. Ha, ha... it needs washing thanks to me spilling milk on it. Think I'll swap it for the white blanket. It's my favourite.
... Pam
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I absolutely love the white with the bright floral binding. It looks so crisp and pretty. If you find out what kind of fabric this is I hope you will repost it on your blog. These would make such beautiful baby gifts especially if the fabric is as soft as it looks to be. Mburnette912@bellsouth.net
ReplyDeleteThe blankets look great! What size did you make them? I know you said lap size but what size is that? I have some fleece in my stash and you have given me inspiration! ☺
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sheila. Mine are 40" x 40", which I think is on the small size for a lap rug, but it's a good size for me when sitting at the computer. I think a lap rug for sitting on a lounge would be better a little larger. When I initially Googled it, there was a lot of variation in the sizes, with many being rectangular, but I went for a square. So, basically, it's any size you want it to be. You could always throw a couple of yards of fabric over your lap and work out a good size for you.
DeleteI, too, love that white fabric! This idea will be perfect for moving some of my fabric from stash I feel guilty about to some nice finishes. Must go pin this on my "do it now" board.
ReplyDeleteThe binding adds such a great touch to these blankets!
ReplyDeleteThe white one is my fave also. Such fresh colours :) Makes me think of spring.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the hand stitching of the binding on a quilt too Pam, so it was interesting to read your thoughts on why you didn't enjoy it on the lap blanket.
ReplyDeleteIt’s an amazing blog post, and it is really helpful as well.
ReplyDelete