Starry Starry Denim: No-Sew Picnic Blanket

Who doesn’t need a nice heavy ground blanket or tablecloth for a barbeque or concert in the park over the summer? This one is so easy! It’s washable, sturdy, and only as decorated as you want to make it. And even though it is made out of fabric, you don’t need to touch sewing machine!

I have to admit to making this project a couple of years ago. I keep it folded up and ready to grab when heading out to where ever it may be that I want to use it. I’m being honest in these photos by leaving the creases in – this is what it looks like in real life!

I’ll walk you through the project briefly here (I know, everyone who knows me just rolled their eyes! “briefly” and words are a tough mix for me) Onward with the project!

The only tools you need are a pencil or marker, an iron, and some scissors. Really! You can fake an ironing surface with layers of towels. As for supplies, you want the fabric and some fusible product, and we’ll get to that in a minute.

Decide what kind of design you would want. Stars scattered all over in random styles and sizes like mine? If you would mostly use it as a tablecloth, it would be cute to have all-one-size stars marching across the edges that overhang the table. Get creative!

You need some star-shaped templates. They can be made out of anything that you can trace around. I used a Cricut to cut out a variety of stars in different sizes and shapes out of cardstock. I suggest they be at least 6” across, up to 12” or so. Too small and you will be cutting fabric stars until next July ;)

Let’s talk fabric for a minute! Yay!! I used a variety of patriotic fabrics for the stars. I love fabric, so I probably had all of these on hand. That’s not to say I didn’t go buy others just because it was a good excuse reason to do so. Use regular cotton “quilting” fabric or cotton novelty prints for the stars. Now for the denim – you’ll want to choose a sturdy thick one, like heavy jeans are made from.

How much this fabric to buy? For the stars, it kind of depends on how much of the surface you want to cover. 3/8 yard of three or four different fabrics would get you about what I made. Denim usually measures around 60” wide. If you want to make a square like mine, you’ll buy a chunk 60”-63” long. You can make it as long as you like. Readymade rectangular tablecloths are 84”, 102”, or 120”.  Rest assured that the people who cut your fabric speak Inches as well as Yards ;)

The only other thing you need from the store is the fusible product. I won’t go over how to use this, as the package directions are very clear. On a big project out of heavy material like this, I will only use Heat n Bond UltraHold sheets and Heat n Bond UltraHold in tape form  because it requires NO SEWING! Get the tape in either 5/8” wide or 7/8” wide; this is for the hems. Just follow the directions on the package for how to use them.

BE SURE TO WASH ALL YOUR FABRICS FIRST because otherwise the fusible won’t work very well. Stay nearby because that much denim might throw the washing machine off-balance ;) Adding a couple of (dark colored) towels might help.

Don’t make yourself crazy with the next few decisions. It can be done, I will attest to that… I am an overthinker. Use your star templates, HeatnBond UltraHold, and the cotton prints to make your stars. Figure out where you want to fuse them on the denim and get it done.

For the hem, if you like the fringy, cut-off shorts look you can just trim all four sides of the denim – as with cutoffs, it will look better over time. I wanted hemmed edges; fold them under and fuse them using the HeatnBond UltraHold tape.  You can see in this photo that I folded the sides of the fabric just once, but the cut ends I folded twice. If you are looking closely you might notice I stitched it at some point … that was an experiment and turns out to be unneeded. You choose – this is YOUR project!

Here’s a patchwork version you could make if you have old jeans, a sewing machine and more time.  You could add stars onto it, too! I love stars – can you tell?

So go ahead and make a fused star and denim picnic blanket for yourself! It doesn’t even need to be patriotic theme – if you love another summer motif, use that. You’ll have a tablecloth or ground blanket that’s quick to make but will last for a long time.

Gail

PS I know this blog entry has far more pictures than needed, but I have a new toy on my ‘puter called Photoshop and it’s amazing fun! It will be over soon, don’t worry.