Waterproof Picnic Blanket Tutorial

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Who’s ready for picnic season?  To help you get ready I’m sharing a tutorial for how to make your own waterproof picnic blanket.

To make your own picnic blanket you will need:

• 1 1/2 yards of fabric for the top of your blanket (I used a red cotton twill)
• 1 1/2 yards of vinyl tablecloth fabric for the bottom of your blanket
• coordinating ribbon (about 5-6 yards)
• coordinating thread
• sewing machine & heavy duty needle
• bobby pins or clips
• scissors or rotary cutting set

Step 1: Wash and dry the top fabric (the non-vinyl one!).  Lay the top fabric on the floor with the right side facing up.  Then lay the vinyl on top of it, with the right side facing down.

Step 2: Square the two pieces of fabric off and cut them to the same size.  Then attach them to each other using bobby pins or quilting clips.

Don’t use sewing pins because the holes that they make in the vinyl are permanent.  Then sew around the edges, sewing 1/2 inch from the edge but leave an opening on one side of about 7-9 inches.

Step 3: Clip the corners of the rectangle.

Step 4: Turn the blanket right side out by pulling it all through the hole that you left unsewn.  Push the corners out as much as you can.  I often find the end of a pen to be useful for pushing the corners out.  Flatten everything out with your hands.  Then turn it over so that the vinyl is down and the other fabric side is facing up.  Press it lightly with a cool iron, being sure not to stay in any one spot too long.  DO NOT iron on the vinyl side or it will melt.

Step 5: Use your bobby pins or clips to pin around the edges and keep things from shifting too much.  Now you are going to add the ribbon to the front.  Place the ribbon 18 inches from the outside on both sides.  Tape the ribbon into place using painter’s tape.

On one end you will fold the edge under (bottom of the picture) and on the other end you will leave 13 inches of ribbon hanging off of end (top of picture).  Cut 2 more pieces of ribbon to 14 inches.  Slip the 14 inch pieces of ribbon in between the longer ribbon that you have taped down and the front of the picnic blanket.

Sew along the outer edge of the two white stripes on each ribbon, going all the way from the top of the blanket to the bottom of the blanket.  Do this for both ribbons.

Step 6: Topstitch all around the outside edge of the blanket, sewing 1/2 inch from the edge.

Step 7: Turn the ends of the ribbons under twice and sew across them to hem their edges.

Now you can take a lovely picnic!

And what picnic would be complete without some great food and an ice cold Coca-Cola™?  I recently picked some up Coca-Cola and Diet Coke® at Giant Eagle.   They have everything you could need for a picnic.

On a hot summer day, I love to share an Ice Cold Coke with my friends.  Coca-Cola is the quintessential summer drink, perfect for sharing with friends at a BBQ or picnic and they’re even more fun to share now that Share a Coke is back with 1,000 new Share A Coke names featuring first and last names this year!

When you are all done with your picnic the blanket folds up easily.  First, fold one side over toward the middle along the ribbon.  Then fold the other side over.

Next roll the blanket up from the bottom to the top.  Tie the ribbons together and you’ve got it all together in one nice little bundle, perfect for packing up for a picnic.

Have any fun picnics planned this summer?  Let me know in the comments below and be sure to check out your Giant Eagle for ice cold Coca-Cola and all your picnic needs this summer.