All about baby blankets in patchwork style

Patchwork is translated from English as "a product made of patches." Skillfully folding the multi-colored pieces of fabric, you can get a bright positive baby blanket, under which it will be easy and comfortable for the child to sleep. Only at first glance, such products may seem like a chaotic set of patches, in fact, patchwork is a fascinating art of sewing with a large number of techniques. And if you look closely, you can see one of them in any baby blanket.

Patchwork is an ancient skill that can be traced back to the invention of the fabrics themselves. At the thrifty housewife, precious scraps of matter were not thrown away, but sewn into linens for further use. The museums of the world have historical exhibits that confirm the interest of our ancestors in the compilation of patchwork. In the Cave of a Thousand Buddhas, a carpet was found, sewn from fragments of pilgrims' clothes, dated back to the 10th century. In one of the museums in Egypt, there is a canvas made of pieces of leather, the appearance of which dates back to 980 BC.

The peculiarity of patchwork art lies in its uniqueness... It is impossible to make two identical blankets out of many scraps, so each piece is exclusive. There are other advantages of the patchwork technique:

• only threads are spent on creating a product, and the canvas itself is assembled from scraps;
• making up patches, you can sew blankets of different sizes, even for non-standard baby beds;
• during work, any fantasies are realized, and the more peculiar they are, the more the craftswoman will be able to surprise with the final result.

The colorful pattern of the canvases adds mood, it brings coziness to any home. A patchwork blanket can be supported with a mosaic pattern on the wall, a bedside rug made of pieces of fabric, or an equally colorful lampshade. The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise the original interior will turn into a lurid and tasteless setting.

So that the blanket does not look haphazard, craftswomen put a certain logic in the selection of patterns and colors... For example, the entire ornament is built around the central plot application or patches are selected that match the dominant shade of the children's room. The design of the blanket should not put pressure on vision or create an imbalance in the interior, therefore, designers recommend choosing several primary colors and 2-3 background shades to create it. Diversity and many small details are allowed in small children's rooms.

Patchwork quilts for kids have a special variety... They are saturated with color, contain applications, thematic images on the plots of your favorite cartoons. In addition, products can be for a boy or girl, intended for a newborn baby, or sewn in certain sizes, especially for a baby's crib. Children of any age - from crumbs to teenagers - will be able to appreciate these funny blankets.

We offer you to look at a selection of baby blankets in order to understand how beautiful, original, and made with great love for little users they can be.

• When creating a blanket for boys, they often resort to the marine theme. Here you can use white and all shades of blue. The younger the child, the weaker the tonality and the more delicate blueness is present in the product. Marine scenes with other shades are much less often used; they are turned to when it is necessary to maintain the overall color of the interior.

• Babies especially like blankets. with a large pattern in the center, it can be seen as a painting by turning on the imagination and coming up with adventures for your favorite characters.

• See how lovingly you can completely decorate your baby crib in the patchwork style. The sheet, blanket, pillow and even the sides are made of bright patches. A variety of funny hares will keep the baby's gaze for a long time, because they do not repeat themselves, but I want to consider each one.

• Light and gentle colors are chosen for the little princess.... On a quilt with appliqués, a large number of pillows, made of pieces of fabric, bows and lace, settled down.

• Boys prefer car designs... A calm background is selected for the crumbs, and an older child can be offered a riot of colors. The colorful canvas with pictures is impressive and delights children.

• Plots are also being developed for animal lovers. For example, a teenager can be offered a beautiful canvas depicting African wild animals (safari). And for the crumbs, a plot with mischievous dogs, or kind pets, which he saw in the village with his grandmother (farm theme), is more suitable.

• Teen will appreciate the bedspread with photographs of memorable family events... The canvas is sewn from squares containing non-repeating plots.

• When creating baby blankets, quite often they resort to applications, they neutralize the diversity of patches and interest kids in a specific topic, as they often depict animals, favorite equipment or characters from cartoons.

• A complex blanket for a girl using many techniques was made with extraordinary love. It does not contain a specific plot, but gives out the good taste and high skill of the author.

This type is considered the simplest technique, since it is not difficult even for a novice craftswoman to sew identical stripes together. For the technique of sewing strips, the material is prepared in advance. They cut out identical elements in the form of elongated rectangles from pieces of fabrics of different colors and structures, and then sew them together. A large square with appliqués can be placed in the center of such a blanket.

Blankets from squares are as easy to create as from stripes. This technique belongs to one of the most ancient... But this applies to flaps of the same size. If squares of different sizes are used in the product, you will need a diagram with which the working material is laid out. The pattern is chosen by the craftswoman according to her taste: it can resemble a checkerboard, alternate colors in rows, or look chaotic.

The squares are sewn with the sidewalls to each other, or a more complex step sewing is chosen, when one flap begins to be sewn from the middle of the edge of the second. In this case, the drawing resembles the layout of ceramic tiles. A similar stitching technique can be used when composing a canvas from triangles or rectangles... In the first case, it is better to choose isosceles figures... High-class craftswomen using geometric patches are able to create “pixelated” portraits, similar to photographs.

The beautiful peculiar style of the "well" is also called the "American square", it was very popular in America several centuries ago. The Europeans also gave him fame, having borrowed equipment from overseas. The product is based on a small square located in the center of the blanket; larger squares are gradually built up around it, sewn in size in ascending order. If you look at the canvas from above, the illusion of a well made of logs is created.

In this technique, the color is important, not the shape of the patches. A watercolor blanket can consist of squares, stripes or shapeless sections, but they are all united by the same color scheme, as if they were painted with watercolors and created by an artist's brush.

The blanket is sewn from hexagons of the same size, cut from rags... If you introduce honey-colored shades into the canvas, it will resemble a honeycomb. But most often a harmonious hexagon is used to create a floral or starry blanket, less often other artistic images are created.

The most beautiful and voluminous technique used for many years in Russia... The blanket "blooper" is made up of tiny scraps hanging from the canvas with the free end. Pieces of tissue rolled into a tube give an even greater volume. The creation of such a product is hard painstaking work, since you have to work with a lot of small parts. Thanks to the selection of various shades, you can make paintings from rags. They, like canvases painted with oil paints, look amazingly beautiful if you move away from them at a distance.

For the patchwork style, there are no restrictions on the selection of material, the main thing is the harmony in the combination of texture and color... As for baby blankets, there are certain guidelines for the use of fabrics. For little users, natural products are predominantly chosen, soft, tactilely pleasant, with environmentally friendly dyes, ensuring complete safety for babies. The following fabrics can be used to decorate children's bedrooms.

• Cotton... Durable and natural material, it makes durable and beautiful blankets. Many types of fabrics are produced on the basis of cotton.
• Flannel... Soft, pleasant to the touch fabric made of cotton threads. Often used in products for newborns.
• Linen... A dense, rough material with a high degree of hygroscopicity. Suitable for country style summer blankets, ethno.
• Kulirka... The thinnest and smoothest cotton jersey that kids love to touch.
• Silk... Natural silk is beautiful, but very expensive, even trimmings are rare. Its sliding texture is not to everyone's taste. But silk is ideal for oriental styles. The same characteristics apply to satin products.
• Fleece... The fabric is synthetic, but soft and light, pleasant to the touch, does not require difficult maintenance. The bottom layer of the blanket can be made from natural material, while the top layer can be made from fleece patches.
• Chintz... Durable cotton fabric in a variety of predominantly bright colors. Bedspreads are inexpensive and elegant.

The sizes of baby blankets vary. The patchwork technique allows you to make products of any parameters, from envelopes for newborns to teenage blankets for a single or one-and-a-half bed. In order for the duvet to match the dimensions of the rest of the bedding, certain standards are still in place.

• Single-bed products - 110x140 cm.For the smallest, they make square options 110x110, 120x120, 130x130 cm.
• One and a half blankets - 135x200 cm or 140x210 cm.

As for European standards, add another 10 or 15 cm to the above parameters. Many craftswomen prefer to sew non-standard blankets that are comfortable for a particular child and designed for his sleeping place.

1. Using a template, a pattern of the future flap is applied to the fabric or trimming and cut out. To create a conceived ornament, each element is numbered.
2. The flaps are ironed with an iron and, taking into account the numbers, are sewn together, forming a solid canvas.
3. The lining is laid face down, a layer of padding polyester is placed on it, and a patchwork covering is placed on top.
4. All three layers are sewn together using a typewriter.
5. The edge seam is masked by edging.
6. You can manually quilt the finished product.

A blanket sewn with love will decorate the nursery, give the baby a healthy rest and beautiful colorful dreams.

For information on how to sew a patchwork baby blanket, see the next video.