Blanket with an iphone Pocket

A fun activity to do with the kids on a snowy day is the fleece tie blanket. You get a warm, durable blanket to take with you to all of those soccer and football games and the satisfaction of knowing you made it with the kids.

Items needed:

• ·         Sharp scissors
• ·         2 pieces of fleece that are the same length & width (I used  1 ½ yards of each)
• ·         Additional 12” x 12” square of coordinating fleece for pocket and more if you want to embellish your blanket
• ·         Coordinating thread
• ·         pins
• ·         10” zipper- in a coordinating color to your  1 ½ yard of fleece

One of the many great things about fleece is you do not need a finished seam. All edges of the fabric are raw and will remain that way. This is a great time saver when doing crafts with the kids.

Starting with one of the 1 ½ yards of fabric pin the zipper face down and in the closed position 5” from the top and centered from left to right. Carefully sew around all four sides of the zipper and do not sew over the used portion of the zipper teeth. A special zipper foot that is narrower on your sewing machine, makes this easier to achieve. Once the zipper is installed, flip the fabric over and feel with your fingers the center teeth part of the zipper, take your scissors and cut a neat line down the center exposing the zipper & zipper pull. Be certain to keep your cut line within the sewn rectangle you just made. Do not cut through any of your stitching.

Center the 12” x 12” fleece square on the wrong side of one of your larger 1 ½ yard pieces of fleece  over  and 1” above your zipper. Pin the square in place making sure both pieces of fabric are smooth. Sew a ½” seam all the way around the 12” square. Your pocket is now complete.

If you want to embellish the unused 1 ½ yard fleece blanket now is the time to do that before you connect the front and back pieces together. I cut a “W” out and stitched it to the center. You could easily cut out your kids’ names or an animal shape.

Lay both pieces of the 1 ½ yards of fleece on top of one another good sides out. You want the pocket to be on the inside of the blanket with the zipper showing on the outside.  Trim any excess fleece so that the two pieces are exactly the same size. With both pieces lined up cut 3” deep cuts approximately 1” apart all the way around the perimeter (they don’t need to be perfect. )  Be certain to cut through both pieces of fleece at the same time. At each of the four corners I cut out a square of fleece and toss it. Once all your cuts are complete, it’s time to enlist the kids’ help.  Have them double knot a top piece of fringe to the corresponding bottom piece of fringe all the way around the blanket.  At the 4 corners I tie a left bottom piece of fringe to a top right piece of fringe and a bottom right to the top left (criss-crossing them over each other.)

Now your kids have one more blanket they can use around the house to create a tent! Yeah!!!!  And you have a handy blanket to store snacks, money and your phone in at the next game.

If you have a craft emergency or home improvement questions you want answered e-mail me at Paschnoor@yahoo.com.

Laus Deo,

Paula Schnoor-Comes