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Fabric for Rag Blankets
Sizing & Making a Rag Blanket
Cut Squares to Make a Rag Blanket
Layout Squares to Make a Rag Blanket
Sewing Squares into Blocks to Make Rag Blankets
Sewing Rows to Make a Rab Blanket
Sewing Together a Rag Blanket
Cut Fabric for a Frayed Look
Sew the Outer Seam on a Blanket
How to Wash a Handmade Blanket
Caring for Handmade Blankets
Summary: The right fabric makes a rag blanket authentic; learn how to choose the fabric for a rag blanket in this free video on sewing and making blankets.
Gretchen Soares is the co-owner of Bufferfly Boutique, which specializes in soft goods such as quilts, clothing and wearable art. She holds an Associates of Science degree in home...read more
Sewing is an ancient craft that still has remarkable relevance in today's modern world. The art of stitching and assembling pieces of fabric together either by hand or with the use of a modern sewing machine is still a valuable skill and can be used for industry, home, or artistic purposes. Industrial sewing is usually done with the use of machines, but for seamstresses, alteration givers, and most casual sewers, an old fashioned needle and thread is still incredibly useful and more often than not the desired method since it enables far more detail. Tailoring and dressmaking require not only a needle and thread, but also other tools and materials that you can find easily at arts and crafts stores.
In this free video series, expert craftswoman Gretchen Soares shows you how to make a rag blanket start to finish. You will learn how to choose fabric and decide on the size of your blanket. Gretchen then lays out the process, cutting squares, sewing them into blocks and rows, sewing the rows together, and more. You get tips on giving the blanket an aged, frayed look and how to wash and take care of handmade blankets like rag blankets.
"Hi. Welcome to Expert Village. I'm Gretchen Soares and today we're going to be making a rag blanket. In this clip we're going to talk about choosing our fabrics that we're going to work with. I like quilts that are in the same family. This one has a clouds theme and it's blue for a little boy obviously, lots of similar colors. The one that we're going to be working on today is going to be all out of pastels and use a little flowers in it so it's going to be a little more girly. Like I said previously, I like to use receiving blankets so we've gone through and picked out a number of these receiving blankets that we have that we're done with and we're going to use those. But you can also use yardage from the fabric store. So here's a piece of yardage that we could incorporate if we chose, and it's just plain flannel yardage and you want to use flannel because that's what gives you the soft look when it washes and it's also what makes it so soft for the child to be up against their skin."
eHow Article: Fabric for Rag Blankets
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Comments
cj23time said
on 6/9/2009 Yes, Thank you Gretchen for showing us how to do this. But I'm curious, do you have to use only flannel for the ragging afect or will it be okay to use cotton fabrics as well?
darcel said
on 8/2/2008 Thanks Gretchen for the wonderful video. I have been wanting to make a rag quilt for a long time and your video was lots of help. Can I ask you if you just eyeball the X pattern on each square or do you actually mark the X?