Princess Pea Blanket

1 Honey Bun – featured Spring Magic by April Cornell

Layer Cake Squares or scraps for Applique’

1/2 yard of coordinating fabric for blanket front

1 3/4 yards of coordinating fabric for backing.

1 1/2 yards of coodrinating fabrics for ruffle trim.

1 3/4 yards of batting – featured Kyoto batting by Luna batting by Moda

3 yards each of various coordinating colors of ric-rac and other trim embellishments.

1 green button for the pea

Printed applique pattern for the Princess

Coordinating threads for applique

Wonder-Under fusible web

Separate your honey bun into the appropriate colorways and decide on a color pattern (green, pink, teal, yellow, green, pink…) Start with your first strip and add a trim embellishment.

Add your second color strip right sides together. I used a white Moda scalloped trim and ric rac between the strips to act as a sheet in between the stacked mattresses.

Continue adding strips and trims until you have sewn all 40 strips together.

Cut your coordinating fabric for the blanket front, 16″ wide by the width of the fabric. Sew to the top of your strips or “stacked mattresses”.

Iron all the strips down going in one direction. The raw edges should all be going toward the top of the blanket.

Topstitch all the strips about an 1/8″ on the bottom of each strip tacking the raw edge down on the back.

Print out the Applique pattern from the Printable version and cut out all the pieces.

Decide on what fabrics to use for each piece. I used layer cake squares as they are perfect size for the appliques and I have the whole range to choose from for my princess. For the face and hands I used a Moda wool in a flesh tone color.

Apply Wonder-Under (or other fusible web) to each of the fabrics for your applique.

Trace around all the applique pieces onto the fusible side of each of your fabric selections. Wonder-Under has a paper on one side so you can easily trace and cut before you peel it off to fuse it to your project.

For the dress, mark where the sleeve is located with a fabric pencil so when you machine applique you can stitch in the sleeve for the dress.

Layout all your pieces together before ironing so if you need to make adjustments you can still do so. Once you have everything where you want it… iron down in place.

Machine or hand applique your princess to your blanket.

Round off the corners using a bowl or something round as a guide. This will make it easier when sewing the ruffle on around the corners.
From your coodinating fabric for the ruffle trim, cut 8 strips all 6″ wide by the width of the fabric. Sew all the strips together end to end creating one long strip. Iron in half length wise now making your strip 3″ doubled on fold. I used a ruffle foot on my machine to create the ruffle. You can also do this by stitching a long loose stitch and then pull one of the threads delicately creating a ruffle. If you do it by hand, then you will need to make sure you stitch your ruffle down in place so it does not come undone when adding to your blanket.

Sew your ruffle on to your blanket top with the ruffle facing in towards the blanket. I like to start my ruffle end even with my raw edge of my blanket top to conceal any raw edges.
Then simply turn the ruffle edge to match up with the blanket edge and stitch all around the blanket.

When you get back all the way around to the other end, overlap the two ruffles about an inch or two and then curve the end down and sew across the raw edge to conceal the edge when attaching the back.

Trim off any excess ruffle so it is even with the raw edge of the blanket top.

Now it is time to sandwich the blanket with your batting. I wanted a loftier feel so I used two layers of batting. Lay the batting down first.

Next lay the blanket backing on top of the batting with the right side up. Use safety pins into your carpet to help hold it tight and straight.

Next layer the blanket top right side down facing the right side of the backing. Be sure your ruffle in sandwiched between your backing and blanket top. Pin all around the blanket edges to make sure it will not shift when sewing. Sew your layers together like a big pillow. Leave about a 6-8 inch opening for turning. Also be sure that sew with a seam allowance large enought to hide your seams on the ruffle.

Flip your blanket right side out so that your batting is now sandwiched between your backing and top. The ruffle will now be on the edges of your blanket as your trim. Stitch the opening closed by machine or hand.

To hold the batting in place, I tied off the blanket with a coodinating Mettler cordonnet thread. Decide on what mattress your pea (button) will reside and hand sew in place.

One adorable little blanket for your special princess!

Angela Yosten

http://modahomemom.blogspot.com/