Advice on a minky (minkee) blanket/throw

Try flat-felled seams. Let me see if I can explain this okay, but I mean like the outside seam of your jeans. Sew a 5/8" seam. Cut one side of the fabric to 1/2" to 1/4", to eliminate bulk. Roll the 5/8" side over the top of the cut piece. Stitch this down so it lies flat on the opened fabric. No rough edges should be visible. Nothing but softness for you, and a slightly thicker area where you have a seam.

Consider putting a 36" square on point and finishing with triangles to make a square. If the resulting square is big enough for a blanket, that would be great! I suggest this to avoid a seam down the center which may be less pleasant.

-georg

You didn't say how much of this you had? If you have say 4yds, you could cut it in half, then put two yards beside two yards, making a 72" square. To join the two halves, I would suggest you do it as follows, to avoid a seam at all: Place the two pieces side by side, as I said, then sew a 1" (or 1.5 or

2" - up to you) strip of binding over the join on the front and the back. If you made one strip slightly wider than the other you could even do the sewing in one go and be sure that, by sewing from the narrower side through to the wider side, all the stitching was within the joining strips. If you wanted to make a co-ordinated piece, you could put binding of the same fabric around all the edges. . In message , Dee5 writes

Georg's suggestion of a flat felled seam is a good one. Furthermore - you might want to see if Minkee has a 'nap'. Dee, I don't know what your sewing experience is - but by nap, I mean that the Minkee might look lighter in one direction and darker in the other. The easiest (and right silly-looking) way to tell is to toss the fabric length around your neck so that the ends hang down your front. Go look in the mirror and see if there's a color change. Run you hand over the Minkee and see if it feels smoother in one direction and marks or fluffs in the other. Is anybody following me? Okay. Crazy time over. If you decide that Minkee does have a nap, you'll want to seam it so that your pieces are put together so that all pieces have the nap running the same way. If I left you only confused, we can talk about this more. Polly

I was just looking at an article in an old Threads Magazine. they made a patchwork shirt out of shear fabrics connected by sashing so it was finished on both sides and had a stained glass effect.

1 Lay out your fabric in a colorblock design - all straight seams and large pieces. 2 Choose your sashing. (I think Minkie is stretchy so I would do a thin double-knit or maybe cotton cut on the bias.) 3 Cut 1 strip for each edge to be joined (2 pieces for each seam). 4 Sew the 2 strips together, right sides facing. Iron the seam open so that the wrong sides of each strip are together. 5 Apply one side to one piece of minkie and the other side to the adjoining piece of minkie like bias tape. Ta Da! joined & finished on both sides.

My thoughts I think it would be stronger if you used double strips of bias like you bind a quilt with & iron the seam into the open sides to make it easier to find where the stitching should be- Minkie weighs a lot more than sheer voile.

Jane in NE Ohio