Seeeeeeeeew Waaaaaaaarm

Here on the East Coast it's been pretty mild but the cold has finally arrived! With the cold comes hot beverages of the chocolaty kind (with marshmallows), the gas fireplace being the favorite location for the cat as well as those of us with two legs, and snuggling in comfy covers. My Mother asked if I could make a special cover for my brother (and his kitten if you want to see some cool kitten action head over to Alien xenomorph cat toy for some o dat fun stuff). It seems that I am making a lot of instructables about gifts for my brother, hmmm interesting.

Anyway, this cover is made from Fake Fur and Fleece it's super heavy and very toasty I gave it to Mom to test out and it was nap inducing. Two sleepy thumbs up and both eyes closed.

**NOTE that both of these fabrics are not natural fibers be careful near open flame.** I'm making a bid to make
RESPONSIBLE SNUGGLING a thing. Bwahahaha snicker snicker

This cover is simple-ish to make, the size being the most detrimental thing. I took pictures half way through of the real fabric, but I do have pictures of a smaller scale fur/fleece for explanation purposes.

You should make one. It is insta-glam and super warm. This would be a great way to spruce up your space be it bedroom or living room. It would also be a great gift to someone who is always complaining about the cold eeer I mean someone you want to send a furry hug to. The best thing is it only takes a few hours and after that you can take a nice warm nap.

If you haven't guessed I am entering this in the sew warm contest sew..(groan) if you like it gimme a vote! Thank YOU!!!!

Step 1: What You Need Is What You Get....

You should hunt around for your fur online is a great source. My mother got this a loooong time ago, it's just now that the cover is being made. There are some stores that sell fake fur and although I do like to shop at Joann fabrics and do buy lots of fabric and notions from there.... their faux fur is more faux than fur, if you know what I mean. I think that this cover works more if the fur is soft and luxurious. There are online options a google search turned up a few I recognized.

Fabric Depot

Mood fabric

Fabric.com

This one is a pretty purple color (brothers college color) and is super soft and very dense. I went to the store with it to find an acceptable color and pattern match fleece which I DID get at Joanns.

Materials:

Fur 2.25yd x 2 yd-ish (this was a remnant so I am unaware of how much it was...and NOT sqare I will explain in future steps)

Fleece= we got just over 2 yds (the rest of the bolt) it was their reg fleece and not the super wide. ON SALE yay $8!

Thread= Gray that looked good on the fleece, it gets swallowed into the fur so no worries there

Pins= I had these super long large corsage pins that worked great for this.

Clips= I had quilt clips that work great for the edges and I would encourage you to get them if you want to make a few of these covers, you CAN use pins but if you use pins make sure you take them ALL OUT, nothing says ahhhh like a pin in your side that had been sewn into your cover. I know this because my Mom did sew a pin into my going to college cover... and I loved her for it every time I got stuck in the middle of the night. NOT lol.

Two Cutting boards or a large cutting surface.

Sewing machine

Someone to help you maneuver and remove pins is also nice:)

Step 2: Yay Cutting and Sewing

Layout:

I put two cardboard cutting surfaces together to make a nice large area (it wasn't large enough but it was better than carpet) I'm showing you the finished one in the first pic...out lost size with trimming and sewing this it's the finished length/width.

The next set of pictures is with the small scraps. The same faux fur but a different fleece.

Lay out your fur, furry side down, put your fleece onto it then make your fleece your straight lines. The fur was not square, I lined up the fleece to the straightest faux fur edge and then trimmed the other three edges.

Your fur will shed as soon as you start cutting expect to vacuum after this project.

Once you have your straight edges you need to flip right sides together. **** You need the make sure they fit the same way you cut them, look at the pics for a nifty way to make that happen. i pulled the fleece back, then folded the right sides together. That end matches and i just moved the fleece out of the way and pulled up by the matched edge. Now you should use your clips ....or your pins (beeeware the pins) to anchor both fabrics together. Put pins in regularly all around there is no way to over pin you'll have to take them out but with this much heavy fabric it will help you more than annoy you.

Sew!! Use a 5/8 seam allowance and go all around the blanket. When approaching the corner make sure you stop with you needle in the fabric then lift the presser foot pivot for the next side then lower your presser foot and continue. Do all four corners BUT leave a section OPEN about 8-10" you'll need this open to pull your blanket right side out.

Step 3: Almost There...sew Close

Next!!!!

Clip your corners.

Turn right side out, use something like a chopstick or something pointy to help complete the corner nicely.

Turn your open section under and pin, use a ladder stitch to close this opening.

Lay your blanket out fur side down, your fleece should look nice and even. This was the part that threw me through the loop. I started by pining the seams flat then using my large corsage pins to anchor both fabrics together throughout, see pictures. I din't want the fabric moving around on me while I was trying to sew it down.

Step 4: Details You Say?

Yes I do thank you very much.

So, Mother wanted a special detail to make this look like something she had seen before, a boarder and a faux mitered edge.

So this was too much fabric to pin and I didn't want to draw on it so I used a rubber band to mark where my fabric should hit on my machine to get my 4 inch boarder. you'll see i started trying to measure and mark...but the rubber band worked so so well.

In fact it worked brilliantly.

Do all four sides. ***Make sure to check your fleece side for the pins as you sew. You know the ones you used to stabilize your layers.***

Fake Miter:
THEN sew from the inner corner and sew outward to the edge of your blanket. This finishes you "mitered" corner.

This makes a lovely finish and you should feel very accomplished your blanket is done!!