Denim picnic blanket quilt

{making}

 

Denim picnic blanket/quilt

    Today's project actually started late last summer as I was cleaning out my dressing room (yes I use a whole extra bedroom in our house as a closet - don't judge - lol). Actually I should probably back the story up a bit further than that, because really the original inspiration probably goes back to March of last year.  My husband and I went to the Blossom Kite Festival (part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC) and while we were sitting on the grass watching some of the demonstrations and competitions a family came and sat near us and the mother pulled out a picnic quilt that was made from both fabric and denim squares and I remember thinking, that would be great in all denim because it would really protect from damp and dirt.  Now fast forward to me cleaning out the dressing room and ending up with a huge pile of jeans that were no longer wearable for one reason or another...... I think you can see where this is going.......

Now, probably most people do not have this many old pairs of jeans laying around to work with, but you could always either add some fabric squares like the original quilt I saw had, or go to a Goodwill outlet store or some other thrift shop that sells clothes by the pound or bag and stock up. Also, if you want to do bigger squares like I did you'll want to get bigger size jeans (like mine were) if possible so that you can get more squares out of each pair.  Alternately you could always do more smaller squares or have some squares that are pieced together out of smaller pieces (just make sure they end up being square).

{1}So..... to start with figure out what size you want the squares to be and add in seam allowances (being denim and not wanting to waste anymore material then was necessary I went with a 1/4" seam allowance.... if you're using a less sturdy material or aren't comfortable with that small a seam allowance you could of course make it larger).  So, if you want the finished squares to be 3" you'll need to cut them out 3.5"x3.5" to allow for the 1/4" all the way around. Also figure out how large you want your finished quilt to be so that you know how many squares to cut out. (mine is 7 rows of 7 squares each square 8"). Cut out enough squares to make both a front and a back for your quilt.

{2}Next, you'll sew the squares together. First you want to sew them into your rows by sewing each block end to end, then once to have all your rows you'll want to sew them together.  Pin and sew along the long side of your row and make sure that all the seams match up (at least as well as possible, since some of the jeans I used were stretch and some weren't they didn't all sew exactly even) Since the denim is thick when you get to a seam you may have to help pull it through your machine. {unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of the process of actually sewing it together, but it really is very simple}. Make sure you end up with a front and a back piece that are the same size. (when I was doing mine I only sewed 7 rows then sewed them together to make the front, then went back and sewed 7 more rows and sewed them together to make the back, because I was sure that otherwise I was going to lose count and end up with a front with 8 rows and a back with 6......).  I also divided my squares by color (light, medium, and dark) and alternated them as I was making the rows so that they would be evenly distributed on the finished piece, and I put all the pieces with pockets on the front side..... you'll want to figure stuff like that out before you start sewing, a little planning makes the process go much easier.

{3}Once you have your front and your back made it's time to put them together.  Lay your back down face down and lay your front on top of it face up, lining up all the edges. Then start pinning blanket binding around the edges. (mine took 6 yards of store bought blanket binding - it came 3yrds. to a package - make sure you measure yours though so that you have enough). I used a cotton binding rather than the satiny type but you can use whatever you like.  Make sure you have the edges of both the front and the back of your blanket/quilt in the binding and pin it relatively close together. Miter the corners as shown in the picture below and if you end on piece of binding and start another make sure you fold the raw edges under.

  

 {4}Sew the binding onto the blanket. Be very careful as you do this that you pay attention to how it's feeding through your machine.  Even if you pinned pretty close together the edges still have a tendency to want to slip out of the binding if you're not careful so make sure you are checking that as you guide it.  Also, again you may have to help pull it through where you come upon a seam.  When you get to a corner make sure your needle is in the down position (through the material), then lift the presser foot and turn the blanket,  lower the presser foot again and continue sewing (on my machine it always stops with the needle in the up position, which is great most of the time, but I do have to manually lower it into the fabric to turn a corner, so if yours does this too keep in mind that you'll want to stop the machine a stitch before you want to turn to allow for the extra stitch when you manually lower the needle)

{5} and Voila! your blanket is done.  Now at this point it is not truly a quilt because you have not done any quilting on it (sewing through both layer together to hold them in place) and if it seems that they are sliding around on each other too much or you just want the look of some quilting you can certainly go ahead and do that.  Or you can also just tack it in a few places to hold it still...... Mine hasn't given me issues with moving around and I don't feel like trying to sew through those thick layers so I left mine as is. 

Although....

I am thinking about writing the date and event on it each time we use it and embroidering over them.... but I haven't decided yet if I want to do that or not. 

You could also use a flannel back vinyl table cloth for the backing instead the second layer of denim for the backing if you wanted to make it really moisture proof, but for mine I wanted it to still be comfortable to be used as an actual blanket if need be at any time and I think the two layers of denim should protect from all but the wettest grounds.

{6}The most important step of all...............Enjoy using your new picnic blanket!