I love quilts, the big beautiful complex ones never cease to amaze me with the skill, effort and commitment they take. For me they are above my skill level and beyond my time frame....But I still love the idea of homemade quilts so here is a simple beginner-friendly quilt tutorial for a raggedy quilt.
You can make the squares as big or as small as you like, though the bigger you make the squares the quicker the quilt comes together and the less cutting is required. For this one I did the feature front material and the backing material in 10inch squares due to the size of the print. I do have a cutting board and a rotary cutter which is quicker but you can easily do it by cutting a template of baking paper in your preferred size and pinning and cutting by hand with scissors. Then the inside wadding I cut in approx 9inch squares.
Each square goes together like this:
Top facing out wards
The middle layer which is smaller then the outer layers
The back layer with the 'pretty' side also facing outwards.
Pin each square together firmly with the materials in this order. For my quilt, I had 36 10inch squares to pin and sew.
Then it is a simple process of using a regular straight stitch making an 'X' from one corner to another like this.
When you have sewn the 'X' on each square arrange your squares in a pattern you are happy with like this.
Then pin them together with the seams facing upwards so the top is messy and the back is smooth like this.
Do this for each row one at a time using plain straight stitch sewing each seam about 1.5cm from the edge, being careful to capture your inner wadding.
Once you have sewn your rows together then sew each row to one another using the exact same method. Being careful to gently feed the thick seams through out machine. It is A LOT of material to get through! I found it also helps to use a really new, sharp needle for this stage. And good quality thread - really anything that stops your machine having a tantrum. I'm not sure about your machine but mine can be moody!
Trim off any overhanging wadding so that it is trim to the seam line. This is important as you don't want the wadding hanging out when you raggedy it - it will look neater when finished.
Then when you have sewn all the squares together so it looks like a quilt sew an 'outer boarder' around the very outside 1.5cm from the edge.
Then simply 'snip' all the seams up roughly 1cm apart, including the outer edge, but be very careful not to cut over the sewing line like this.
Then put in through the washing machine and the dryer which assists in the seams becoming 'raggedy'. A good tip if you don't want fluff through your own is to use the ones down at the laundromat.
The end product should look something like this
Back (yep, I didn't plan my back pattern. It gave me a headache...But if your more particular you can or stick to just one color/pattern of fabric.)
Front
Handy tips to make it more frugal:
- op-shop flannel sheets/materials
- Buy flannel sheets when they are on sale at the end of winter. You don't need a lot of different types of materials if it helps your budget - a simple checkerboard effect looks great too!
- Recycle an old woollen blanket which is often easy to source from an op-shop for the inner wadding. I usually pick up vintage pure Australian wool blankets from the op-shop for $5. A pure wool blanket will add warmth and also weight to the quilt when finished. Just give it a good wash or two and hang it in the sunshine to dry and air out first.
- You can use plain cotton for the front if you wanted and then just line it with a co-coordinating flannel for the back - I do think the flannel is important for helping it become 'snuggly'.
Good luck! Let me know if any of my instructions are not clear, I'm happy to help if there are any questions.
Warmly,
Emma
xx
