Easy No Sew Fleece Blanket Edging

What a week I have had – some good and some not so good.  How about I start with the good.
I think I mentioned the Joann’s fabric store in Grand Island, NE. is having a liquidation sale as they are opening a new store in another location in town and I guess they are not moving any of the merchandise from the old store to the new one so they have had very good sales going on.  I purchased the anti-pill fleece in 2 yard segments to make single layer throws for my daughters, sons in law and grand children – 8 in all.  I didn’t want the throws to get too heavy so that is why I only used one layer for each.


I found directions on the internet for making the throws without the knots you usually see.  This edging looks more like a woven or crocheted edge.  I pretty much followed the directions on Pieces By Polly blog with a few changes of my own to make the 8 throws.

Here are the step by step photos and directions I used to make them.  I purchased Anit-Pill Fleece in 2 yard cuts…wanted the throws to be able to be washed and dried without getting pills which make fleece ugly and not so cozy.

Step 1  I trimmed the selvages off and straightened the ends.  This part is not difficult as they don’t have to be perfect rectangles.  The fabric always is wiggly so who is going to know if it is a llittle off square one way or another.

 

 Step 2 - Cut 1” slits around the entire edge and a 2” square out of each corner.  The 1” cuts are 2” deep.  I stuck a piece of painters tape 2” in from the edges of the fleece, laid the straight edge of the fleece on one of the lines of my cutting mat then used the rotary cutter to eyeball cutting every inch.  If it did not come out even in 1” increments I eyeballed to the end of where I was cutting and either added a little to each 1” fringe or subtracted a little so I wouldn’t have a really skinny or really fat strip at the corners.  I did cut through 2 layers at a time and it was no problem to keep my cuts even.  The tape really helped and cutting into it a little at times didn’t dull the rotary cutter like hitting the edge of a ruler would.  I cut the corners out with a scissors to avoid overcutting into the side strips.

After this step is done the rest could be finished sitting in my favorite chair and watching TV,  listening to music or an audio book.  These fleece throws are so easy even kids can do the edge treatment but would do the fringe cutting for them to keep them safe from those sharp rotary blades.  How about making a Christmas gift for grandparents or in my case I have gifts for my family for Christmas….OK, now on to the finishing of the edge treatment.

 

Step 3  Cut a small slit about 1/2” to 3/4” from the end of each strip with a scissors.  These small clips into the fleece are only about 3/8” long.  As you can see in the photo I just folded over the end and snipped to get the slit I needed.

I had a large crochet hook to use for the next step.  It is a size N but the size isn’t important, just need something that it will go through the slits I cut and be able to grab the next strip and pull it through.  The original web page had them using a looped paper clip  or wire for this step.  Check out the photos on that page.

Step 4  Starting in the center of one long side the crochet hook is slipped through the slit of one strip and into the one next in line. ( I am a left handed person so I am working from left to right – if you are a right handed person you will be going from right to left.  If you can’t figure it out check out the photos from the blog I learned this from here.  I was going to photograph it for right handed people but decided no, I am always having to transpose everything for myself from right handed directions so this time right handers would have to transpose and  I would just show how I did it.  If it were a complicated procedure I would have made it easy but since it is really pretty simple and self explanatory through the photos it stays left handed.)

The second strip is pulled through the slit of the first one and now the second one is on the crochet hook.  Next put the crochet hook through the slit in the next strip and pull it through….keep doing this all around the throw until you only have one strip left.

		Finishing the Edge VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Step 5 The corners are treated no differently than the sides.  As the strips are pulled through and around the corners you will get a rounding of the corner and can keep going along the next side.  No fancy stuff just the same thing you have been doing on the sides. 
Step 6  The last strip is cut in half to make two smaller strips.  Cut a slit in the first strip close to the body of the throw and pull one of the half strips through that slit from the back then hook the other small strip and pull it through the last one you hooked as you worked around the throw.

   

Tie the two smaller strips together in a double knot and try to hide it under the back if you can.  I had trouble with this part and decided if the knot showed a little that was OK.  The ending is the only place where you have a small knot.  If you have ever used those other kind of throws made with two layers and knotted fringe you know how uncomfortable it is to lay on those huge knots.  With this edge the only knot is small and hopefully pretty invisible and not lumpy to lay on. 

 

Notice how nice the edges look plus it looks so fancy but now you know how easy it is to achieve.  I have all 8 throws finished now and ready to wrap for Christmas.  This is the earliest I have ever gotten a gift made for Christmas so I am thrilled.  They were so simple to make and the edges finished off so quickly.  Isn’t this a pretty stack of finished throws?  If you have any questions or don’t understand just leave a comment and I will try to answer.

The bad part of my week went like this …read on if you are interested.  John and I were going to take a few days vacation to see parts of western Nebraska this week.  We left home on Tuesday – my birthday - and headed west.  I had woken that morning with a stiff neck but it wasn’t too bad so just took some Advil and went on our merry way.  Had a great dinner at Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse in Paxton and found a motel at Ogallala – feeling good but still a little stiff neck. 

To hopefully make a long story shorter I woke during the night with Charlie Horse like muscle seizures  in the muscles on the right side of my neck.  If I moved or flinched or maybe did nothing it would cramp up and be very painful.  This kept up the rest of the night off and on into the morning.  We decided I sure would not be able to enjoy any part of the trip so headed home.  I can tell you that every bump the car drove over for the 3 1/2 hours home caused the muscles to seize and finally seeing our home approach was a welcome sight. 

Luckily I could get into my chiropractor right away and he used an electronic gizmo that I will call electric acupuncture to put a little electric current into the muscle to make it relax.  Here is a description of it in Wikipedia here.  There are no needles and I didn’t even feel the current but it made those cramping muscles relax then he could do a little adjustment to help.  I am using ice on the neck now to reduce the swelling and plan to see him in a few days to get the rest of the kinks worked out.  My neck is still pretty sore but no more spasms.  Yippee!

With harvest starting next week we will have to put off our trip until after we are done or another time.  We don’t want to do it in the winter as it is just to cold to enjoy the places we wanted to stop and explore.  We had planned to see  Lake McConaughey, Chimney Rock, Scottsbluff National Monument, Agate Falls National Park, Wineries in Western Nebraska plus what ever the notion hit us that would be interesting.  It was a big disappointment not to be able to go on but would have been torture for me.  This was to be a relaxing, go where and when we wanted kind of trip for a few days.

I am much better now and look forward to getting all straightened out by the first of the week. The soreness is already going away so that is another positive thing.   I will be driving the tractor and grain cart soon so need to be in tip top shape for that.

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Until Later,
Lynn