Water-resistant Blanket

by crimes in Outside > Camping

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Water-resistant Blanket

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Welcome to the on the fly water-resistant blanket, DWR (Durable Water Resistant). This great little go to blanket will make a no hassle ground cover for camping, lounging and picnicking. Cheap and versatile is the name of the game. This lightly padded blanket is just the right size for a spot on mother earth to star gaze, watch a ball game or hang out with the dog. I will walk you through acquiring the materials for pretty cheap, almost nation wide and with a quick machine stitch, we're done! Let's get started.

Supplies

Materials and supplies:

- Moving blanket 40" x 72" of your choice but harbor freight has it just right.

- 2 1/4 yards of 30D DWR ripstop nylon fabric of any color .(MAGNA FABRICS or local fabric store)

- Polyester thread any color

- Sewing machine or by hand is fine.

- Tape measure

- Scissors

- pins or binder clips

- marking pen/ Sharpie

Step 1 : Layout of Materials

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- Find a nice open spot to lay out your DWR fabric with the glossy side up "the wrong side". Standard fabric like this will be 58" to 60" wide. It is usually matte on one side, "right side", and Glossy on the other (DWR coating ) "wrong side".

- Put the face of the blanket (the part you want to sit on) face up, we will call this the "right side up", I am using the black side. Lay this over your DWR fabric as shown.

- Leave 2" to 2-1/4" extra DWR fabric around the entire blanket and mark with a sharpie. We will need this to tuck and fold over with our seam allowance.

Step 2: Cut Materials

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- Mark off 2" to 2 1/4" from the edge of the blanket and mark all the way around with your sharpie.

- Grab your sharp scissors and cut all the way around your line.

This does not need to be perfect or super straight, the edge will be folded pinned or clipped under on the next step.

Step 3: Fold and Pin/ Clip Seam Allowance

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- Fold the outer edge of your fabric over the top of the blanket.

- Tuck apox. 1/2" of your DRW fabric under it self, clip/ pin as shown.

- Work your way around the entire perimeter of the blanket keeping your raw edge of the DWR fabric 1/2" or so under itself. We will sew over this later to avoid any fraying issues.

- Corners can be folded over in an easy overlap of 90 degrees prior to final stitch/sew as shown.

Step 4: Stitch/ Sew

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- Fill your thread bobbins up with your color of choice.

- Fold or roll you blanket up to keep the weight from pulling at the needle.

- DWR fabrics or Sil-nylons can jam up of feed dogs depending on your machine. A good trick with this thin/slick fabric is to lay a slip of wax paper between your feed dogs and fabric as shown.

- Use a long stitch length to avoid bunching of the DWR fabric/ a walking foot attachment here is great. Use a 1" back stitch to lock the thread in place.

- Add tie outs, D-rings or velcro straps to accessorise if you wish.

Step 5: Test and Enhance

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-Lay out your blanket and give it a good roll around.

-Add some common items found in the above photos

-Another stitch around the perimeter will give it better duty wear.

-If you can use a seam sealant, that would be a bonus.

-Enjoy, thank you for watching.