Instructions for Fleece Blankets With Buttonhole Edging
- 1). Fold the fleece in half, from selvage edge to selvage edge. The selvage edge is the edge that is more tightly woven than the rest of the fabric. Hold the fabric by the corners of the selvage edges so the folded edge hangs along the bottom. Move the corners of the selvage edges back and forth, up and down, until the fold along the edge hangs straight and isn't twisted at all. Lay the folded fleece on your cutting mat once you get the fold straight.
- 2). Cut straight up and down the sides and straight across the top of the folded fleece to line up the edges of the two layers of fleece and remove the selvage edges. Use your ruler to guide the rotary cutter to make these cuts to ensure clean straight cuts. Cut in long smooth moves rather than in short, choppy, back-and-forth movements to get straight, smooth edges that don't look hacked off. Unfold the fleece.
- 3). Begin trimming the edge of the fleece with a buttonhole stitch with embroidery thread and needle; begin in the middle of one of the sides. Stick the needle through the fleece fabric from the back to the front about a 1/2 inch in from the edge. Bring the needle straight over to the left a 1/2 inch, and stick the needle back through the fleece from front to back, leaving the stitch loose. Bring the needle and thread over the edge of the fleece, back around to the front, and thread it under the first stitch, moving from the edge in toward the center. Pull the needle back up toward the edge of the blanket, so you are pulling that straight line of thread up so it runs along the edge of the blanket as well as tightening the stitch.
- 4). Stick the needle through the fleece fabric front to back 1/2 an inch to the left of the last place you brought the needle through the fleece. Again, leave the stitch loose. Bring the needle back to the front of the fleece over the edge of the fabric, and slide it under the last stitch from the edge in toward the center. Pull the needle back toward the edge of the fabric to move that line of thread so it runs along the edge of the fleece while also tightening the stitch. Keep working around the edge of the fleece in this manner.
- 5). Make one stitch in from the side, another diagonally in from the corner and the last stitch in from the top when you get to the corners so you form a sort of square with a diagonal line through it with the stitches.
- 6). Tie off the thread and trim the excess once you make it all the way back around to where you started.
