What a week I have had – some good and some not so good. How about I start with the good.
I think I mentioned the Joann’s fabric store in Grand Island, NE. is having a liquidation sale as they are opening a new store in another location in town and I guess they are not moving any of the merchandise from the old store to the new one so they have had very good sales going on. I purchased the anti-pill fleece in 2 yard segments to make single layer throws for my daughters, sons in law and grand children – 8 in all. I didn’t want the throws to get too heavy so that is why I only used one layer for each.
I found directions on the internet for making the throws without the knots you usually see. This edging looks more like a woven or crocheted edge. I pretty much followed the directions on
Helping Little Hands blog with a few changes of my own to make the 8 throws.
Here are the step by step photos and directions I used to make them. I purchased Anit-Pill Fleece in 2 yard cuts…wanted the throws to be able to be washed and dried without getting pills which make fleece ugly and not so cozy.
Step 1 I trimmed the selvages off and straightened the ends. This part is not difficult as they don’t have to be perfect rectangles. The fabric always is wiggly so who is going to know if it is a llittle off square one way or another.
Step 2 - Cut 1” slits around the entire edge and a 2” square out of each corner. The 1” cuts are 2” deep. I stuck a piece of painters tape 2” in from the edges of the fleece, laid the straight edge of the fleece on one of the lines of my cutting mat then used the rotary cutter to eyeball cutting every inch. If it did not come out even in 1” increments I eyeballed to the end of where I
was cutting and either added a little to each 1” fringe or subtracted a little so I wouldn’t have a really skinny or really fat strip at the corners. I did cut through 2 layers at a time and it was no problem to keep my cuts even. The tape really helped and cutting into it a little at times didn’t dull the rotary cutter like hitting the edge of a ruler would. I cut the corners out with a scissors to avoid overcutting into the side strips.
After this step is done the rest could be finished sitting in my favorite chair and watching TV, listening to music or an audio book. These fleece throws are so easy even kids can do the edge treatment but would do the fringe cutting for them to keep them safe from those sharp rotary blades. How about making a Christmas gift for grandparents or in my case I have gifts for my family for Christmas….OK, now on to the finishing of the edge treatment.
Step 3 Cut a small slit about 1/2” to 3/4” from the end of each strip with a scissors. These small clips into the fleece are only about 3/8” long. As you can see in the photo I just folded over the end and snipped to get the slit I needed.
I had a large crochet hook to use for the next step. It is a size N but the size isn’t important, just need something that it will go through the slits I cut and be able to grab the next strip and pull it through. The original web page had them using a looped paper clip or wire for this step. Check out the photos on that page.
Step 4 Starting in the center of one long side the crochet hook is slipped through the slit of one strip and into the one next in line. ( I am a left handed person so I am working from left to right – if you are a right handed person you will be going from right to left. If you can’t figure it out check out the photos from the blog I learned this from
here. I was going to photograph it for right handed people but decided no, I am always having to transpose everything for myself from right handed directions so this time right handers would have to transpose and I would just show how I did it. If it were a complicated procedure I would have made it easy but since it is really pretty simple and self explanatory through the photos it stays left handed.)
The second strip is pulled through the slit of the first one and now the second one is on the crochet hook. Next put the crochet hook through the slit in the next strip and pull it through….keep doing this all around the throw until you only have one strip left.
Step 5 The corners are treated no differently than the sides. As the strips are pulled through and around the corners you will get a rounding of the corner and can keep going along the next side. No fancy stuff just the same thing you have been doing on the sides.
Step 6 The last strip is cut in half to make two smaller strips. Cut a slit in the first strip close to the body of the throw and pull one of the half strips through that slit from the back then hook the other small strip and pull it through the last one you hooked as you worked around the throw.
Tie the two smaller strips together in a double knot and try to hide it under the back if you can. I had trouble with this part and decided if the knot showed a little that was OK. The ending is the only place where you have a small knot. If you have ever used those other kind of throws made with two layers and knotted fringe you know how uncomfortable it is to lay on those huge knots. With this edge the only knot is small and hopefully pretty invisible and not lumpy to lay on.
