Tute Sweet Tuesday:The MAN Blanket.

Hello, ladies.

Think of your MAN, now back to me, now back at your MAN, now back to me.  He may be your father, husband, grandpa, boyfriend, brother,whatever, but Father's day is coming up.  Look up, look down, where are you?  You're sewing a blanket for your MAN.  What's in your hair?  Back to me.  It's just sewing thread to sew your MAN blanket.  Look again, your MAN is smiling because he has a MAN blanket.  What are you going to make him for Father's Day? Can you say:

MAN Blanket?

Back-story:The MAN blanket was invented by my old MAN about a year ago.  I made rag blankets for my niece and nephews and after showing them to him 

he said to me: 'Well, I want a MAN blanket'.
What did I say? 'Done.'

{a fairly realistic re-enactment}
and yes, I totally look like that...

I made one for him and for Spunky (the hubby) for Christmas.  

One for the Dallas Cowboy in my dad.

One for the Florida Gator in Spunky.

And just completed one for Rhonda mom for Mother's Day. "The Sheila Blanket"  Sheila meaning "lady" in Australian. 

{WoW! Ashlie Speaks Spanish AND Australian?!!?  Yes... Yes I do.}  

(Not called Lady Blanket because that sounds weird to me). 

 So how to make this 'MAN Blanket' you ask? 

 Simple. 

Come along with me.
(sorry kids, no pictures.  just use those creative juices to paint a pretty picture in your head-yeah?!)

You all, I'm sure, are familiar with fleece blankets? How you have two coordinating colors and cut and tie around the edge and *WaaaMo Presto*! You've got a blanket! I liked that idea but wanted to push my creative juices a little further down the water slide into the pool of grandeur.

I like rag quilts.  And I like fleece.  So this is a rag fleece blanket.  What's great about these is they are: Easy. Fast, Fun And Easy.  And your MAN will LOVE THEM! Yes, I said easy twice because even for me, it's hard to mess up on them.  

So let's hop to it!

for The MAN Blanket you will need:

Fleece (any fleece will do, for your MAN blanket, may I suggest a favorite team of your MANs'? The fleece is MORE expensive BUT you can always find a sale at JoAnns or any fabric store, or receive their coupons to get it for LESS!)  I like to do 2-1/4 yd.  You can do more or less depending. Just make sure it's the same for the coordinating as well.

Coordinating Fleece: 2-1/4 yd

Thread {the one in your hair will work ;}

*Scissors *Advice: Get a good pair, otherwise it will make your life HELL-O Mr!  I have Ginger pair that I LOVE and treasure.  They are a little spendy and Spunky is not allowed to use them.  Again use fabric store promotions or coupons.  You NEVER ever need to pay full price for them.

Sewing Machine

Measuring device

1. Measure.  Always measure before you cut.  I don't know how many times I don't measure correctly and then have to get sUPEr creative to fix my mistake.  Even though your fabric was cut at 2-1/4yd, it may be slightly different.  When doing this, I go by inches.  Remember, I dislike math, so I choose the path of least resistance.  I measure the length and width and then choose a number that it is divisible by as evenly as possible to get my squares.  (This is the hardest part for me )  It's usually 7 or 8 inches.  But you can make the squares as big or as little as you'd like, so really whatever works for you.  (I sometimes like to mix it up, doing big 14" or 16" and small 7" or 8"-Just remember the bigger the square, the less you have to do *wink wink)

2. Cut. Once you have the size of your square- utilizing the most out of your fabric, your going to cut.  I haven't found an easy button around this yet-I just measure a row and cut squares as I go. You could cut out a pattern of the size of the square and either pin or trace around it then cut, but I get very impatient so I just measure and cut as I go and pray that my squares will be close to the same size.   

3. Stack. Once you have all the squares cut up put them into stacks to be sewn.  I will lay out my blanket as I want it on the floor then stack a row and put a sticky with the row number dividing the rows. Make sense?  So the first row is 1, the next, 2, and so on.  So I can keep track as I go. 

4. Sew. Next step is to sew your stacks.  Sew wrong side together with about an inch to a 1/2 inch inseam.  I like to do about 3/8"-1/2" because you're loosing inches as you do this.  The less the inseam, the less fabric will be lost in your blanket. So if you're doing a 7" square it will end up being a 6" square all said and done. Capiche?

5.  Sew. After sewing your rows your going to sew the rows together.  (*Haha I reread that and it made sense to me.  Make sense to you?)

 Finished? 

Almost.  

6. Sew. Once your MAN blanket is all together, sew around the entire blanket so you can clip the ends too.  Use the same inseam as you did with the rows to create equal harmony with your MAN blanket.

7. Cut. It is grueling. But keep snipping, you're almost done!

8. Wash. (Call me a sinner, but I don't pre-wash mine.  To avoid shrinkage {haha-Seinfeld anyone, anyone?} hang to dry.)

9. Give that MAN in your life a nice smooch and tell him Happy Father's Day!