Throw Blanket

One of my younger cousins has a new obsession of the color lime green, and zebra print EVERYTHING!!!!

I was at JoAnn's and was looking through some clearance fabric when hello, lime green zebra print. For $4y, couldn't pass it up. 

I got 3 yards of fabric total (1 1/2 yards for each side), for $12, batting 50% off for $4, and two spools of lime green thread for $3.

I had some scrap batting left over from the quilt I made my nephew last spring and tried to find a way to use it up.

I layered it 3 or 4 times and traced a heart in the batting and cut it out.

sorry for the mess

I pinned the heart to the fabric and attempted to cleanly sew around it. You have no idea how hard it is to sew through 4 layers of batting. In the end the heard was sewed to the fabric, but not so beautifully. Function I guess became more important. It's definitely not coming off.

Next thing I did to give the blanket a little character, and to keep the batting to the fabric, was sew along the zebra print.

I edited the picture to hopefully show the stitching better.

I made sure to spread out the fabric and pin the start of the longer zebra print stripes this way I didn't have to keep starting and stopping and moving the entire blanket around a million times. I also made sure to plan out how close the starts and ends were to save my self the aggravation, because trust me, after 2 feet it all looks the same. 

Now just so you know, I only sewed the zebra print to the batting on 1 side. NOT both. There was no guarantee that they would match up.

Once the entire blanket was finished I pinned the two sides together inside out around all 4 sides. I made a simple straight stitch down all 4 sides leave the center of the 4th side open. Make sure to sew the 4th side from the corners leaving the center open. This allows you to have clean corners. Once all the sides were stitched I cut any scrap pieces off the edges. 

By reaching through the middle open seem and pulling from an opposite corner through the opening you can turn the blanket the right side out. Make sure to pull the seems out and the corners so you have all of the fabric turned right side out. 

To close the opening I fold the rough edges in and pin them together. I sew a visible stitch close to the edge to finish off the opening. 

Top stitch is the opening closure

Bottom stitch is a secondary seem.

To give the entire blanket a finished look and to keep the seems taught. I pinned around the 4 sides about a 1/2" from the edge. I sewed along this line a simple straight stitch again the full length of the edge of the blanket. It creates a square at the corners once all 4 sides are complete.

Secondary seem

Now all that's left is to enjoy!