picnic blanket

Sam and I are off on his first school trip on Monday to the farm. I've been saying for a while that I wanted to make a picnic blanket and this was just the occasion to get me going. While sorting things out a few weeks ago I found one of Sam's old baby blankets and being the sentimental fool that I am i couldn't part with it so decided to re-purpose it as a picnic blanket. I looked at the PVC that I'm currently using as a tablecloth but it seemed a bit thick and stiff to be easily packable so I put the project on my to do pile while I had a think. On a visit to Poundland during the week I came across a fabric backet PVC tablecloth that was lovely and flexible plus the bright animal print went perfectly with the blanket. 

the tablecloth was a little bigger than the blanket so I used the remaining fabric to appliqué SAM onto the blanket. For my first attempt at appliqué I was quite pleased. 

The blanket is a simple construction:
1. cut tablecloth to same size as blanket
2. place tablecloth and blanket right sides together 
3. take 2 lengths of ribbon about 16inches long (i used 2 narrow ribbons as that was all i had handy in coordinating colours) and fold in half.
4. place the ribbons with the ends tucked inside and the fold along your planned stitch line about 3 inches in from each side of the short edge
5. sew around all 4 sides leaving a gap for turning
6. turn right side out and push out the corners
7. sew together the gap that you used to turn the blanket.


Just roll up the blanket with waterproof side out to keep it clean and then tie the ribbons around it to keep it closed. It's flexible enough to fit under a pram or in a cool bag and is all machine washable. Now all we need is the weather!!!