Strip Rag Quilt Sewing Tutorial

I’m on a roll with sewing tutorials. As always I have to put in my sewing post disclaimer: My grandma taught me how to sew and then gave me her 1970s sewing machine but I’m no expert. If I can sew these you can too! Let me just warn you now that I may not use the correct sewing terminology but I tried to make up for it by adding lots of pictures. Towards the end of my pregnancy with Delilah I couldn’t find a crib blanket that I loved. They were all baby pink with bears or the typical baby prints. I wanted something that said ‘Hey look at me – I’m bright, fun and gonna’ keep you warm baby!’ Okay so really I just wanted something unique but you get the point. I started out by cutting all of my strips of fabric. Most standard crib blankets are 52×34 so I cut my strips to be 38 inches wide (because you are going to trim and fray the ends) and 5 inches wide. I am actually a huge dork and didn’t want to have two of the same prints touching so I drew out a diagram. If you go with 5 inch wide strips you will loose two inches (because they will be cut and frayed) and they will actually end up being 3 inches in which case you will need 17 strips total. I made this blanket over a few days time and on the first day I spent most of my time cutting 17 strips of cotton fabric and 17 strips of flannel fabric. Then when your ready to sew put the wrong sides of a piece of flannel and a piece of cotton together and sew around it one inch in. Once your finished you will have 17 flannel/cotton strips. Using my diagram I started sewing my strips together in the order I wanted them to be. Putting the wrong sides (or flannel sides in my case) facing together and sewing along the same line that you already did one inch in to attach the strips together. Then just keep adding to it the same way. In the picture below you can see what the top of the blanket (left) and the bottom part (right) should look like at this point. This is what it looked like when I finished sewing all the strips together, but even with my careful measuring some of the strips were different lengths. In order to fix that problem I trimmed the side and then sewed all around the perimeter of the blanket one last time. The final step is to use scissors to snip all of the raw edges in between the strips and all around the edges of the blanket. I snipped every 1/4-1/2 inch. This part is the most tedious so I did it on the couch while catching up on DVR shows. (It was nighttime so I don’t have a picture for this part). Then toss it in the washing machine and dryer by itself. The more you wash it the more frayed the edges get. I recommend doing it a minimum of two times and washing it alone for the first 3-4 times unless you want frayed fabric all over your other laundry. I finished this in three days and LOVE it. It can get tedious at times but I was nesting so I was determined to get it finished for my little girl. PLUS it is way easier than a real quilt (which I will probably never attempt!) Enjoy,
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