Chevron Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

I love a good chevron print! This one is home decor weight cotton from Hancocks (scored on sale!). After seeing a few great examples of these faux chenille baby blankets (HERE and HERE), I dcided to give it a try! Blankets are such a traditional gift for a baby, but this one seems to have just a little something different and special about it. I absolutely love the way it feels, kind of heavy like a quilt, but soft and fluffy because of the flannel. I will be making more and doing a couple of things differently, even though I am really happy with how this one turned out! 

(NOTE: I just updated this post with a few pictures of a second blanket I made recently, you'll see some different colors, but the process is the same!)

YOU NEED: 

a rectangle or square of home decor weight fabric in your chosen size (don't pre-shrink)

3 pieces of flannel in the same size (also, don't pre-wash/shrink)

a piece of bias binding long enough to cover the edges of your blanket.

1) Layer the cotton and flannels together with wrong sides together. I laid my cotton right side down on the floor then spread the flannels all right sides up on top of that. Pin every few inches so that they don't slip as you are quilting. I recommend a walking foot. If you use a chevron patterned fabric, like I did, just stitch with the design, the rows need to be no more than an inch apart. This step takes a few hours to complete.

If you just want to make stripes instead of following a chevron, stitch your lines on the bias so that the flannel frays without unraveling.

2) Next, put on a good movie, grab a really sharp pair of scissors and cut through the 3 layers of flannel between every row of stitches-be sure not to snip the home decor weight cotton.

3) Then you bind your blanket. I used pre-made, double fold bias tape. You could keep square corners like the yellow and blue blanket above or round them like this green and yellow one (TUTORIAL here). 

After binding, wash and dry the blanket a few times and you get magic!! 

The flannel frays and curls up and gets all soft and textured. It's a great floor blanket! Babies love to look and grab at it.

(bias tape for binding above and flannel binding below--the flannel didn't hold up to washing quite as well as the bias tape, on both blankets I stitched several times over the edging, I just liked the look)

TIPS:

1) Next time, I will range my flannels from lightest on the outside to dark the closest to the cotton (I did gray, red, blue from the bottom up, but I wish I had done gray on the outside). The gray (which I love paired with the mustard yellow) got a little lost against the back of the cotton. I think that would also have given a little more depth to the overall look. I like the idea of neutrals with pops of bold color peeking out.

2) Flannel worked ok for the binding, but it didn't wash quite as well as I had hoped. It pills a bit. I used bias tape for my most recent blanket and couldn't be happier with how it washed up.

I know I would be ecstatic to get one of these as a gift, heck, I'm ecstatic to GIVE a couple of these as gifts!