I love craft stores. More than that, I love sales and clearance sections at craft stores. While shopping for fabric and felt for our DIY Christmas stockings, I found some scraps of fleece material in the clearance bin. They were the perfect size for a baby blanket for my new niece!
I scooped ‘em up, and got to designing. After some trial and error, which is really the only way I do projects, I designed a pretty braided edge, which maximized the size of the clearance fleece. Grab your scissors and odd sized fleece, and I’ll show you what I did to make this braided edge.
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Like I said, I’m a clearance shopper so the two sizes of fleece material I had were remnants, and certainly not the same size. But I didn’t want to reduce the beautiful mountain-deer scene to the size of the burgundy fleece rectangle. Making the edges the same would then mean I had to cut into the size of the blanket even more in order to get enough material for a border. I also knew that I wanted a blanket with a clean border. I did some researching on Pinterest, and read this post which inspired my design.
What You’ll Need:
- Two pieces of fleece
- Ruler/yardstick (for estimates)
- Scissors
- Sewing machine or needle and thread
- Sewing pins
First, I placed the smaller, burgundy fleece in the middle of the larger, gray fleece. The borders weren’t perfect or symmetrical all they way around, but I didn’t think it would matter too much, given that blankets are usually folded or draped. I pinned the burgundy fleece to the gray fleece, and sewed along the edges.
Then, I cut the gray fleece into strips about 1-in thick, from the outside edge to the edge of the burgundy fleece, all the way around the blanket.
Next, I folded the strips onto itself, back towards the burgundy fleece, but not all the way back. I left about a half inch between the top of the strip and the burgundy fleece.
I then cut about ½ inch slits into each strip. I didn’t really measure each cut, it’s just an estimate. The strips will all be braided together, hiding most imperfections.
Okay, now for the braiding. Just like regular braiding, we are working with three strips at a time. Take the first strip in your left hand, and feed the second and third strips through the slit on the first strip (left hand side).
Now, take the most left hand strip, which was your second strip, and feed the third strip through the slit. Take a fourth strip now and feed it through the same strip. So basically, each slit gets two strips. Take the left hand strip, feed two strips through the slit, and then repeat with the new left hand strip.
Go all the way around the blanket until you are at the beginning. Here, I just looped it around the start of the braid, tied a regular old knot and tucked the knot under the braid.
I think it hid well!
And here is the finished project!! So cozy, so simple, so cute.
A close up of the edge.
What do you guys think? Easy enough, right! If you attempt this edge, or come up with a new one trying, I’d love to see it!
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Create On,
*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*