Mending Matters

A friend of mine recently asked for help with one of her prized possessions: her grandfathers WWII wool blanket.

It has been loved and washed a million times, mended with feed-sacks by her mother, and another cover put over that. Over the years, the blanket has been washed so many times that the covering was fraying, and coming apart. She needed it fixed.

The caveat? Keep the feed-sacks and covering on it. Make a duvet.

The fabric on the outside of the blanket was thin and had been stretched from weight, use and time – the blanket weighs 8 or so pounds! the original weighted blanket. I mended the cover by simply pulling the fabric onto itself and whipstitching the pieces together, Where I could sew seams together again, I gently sewed them together along the old seam.

I covered the edges of the blanket with a large binding to preserve their integrity.

The cover is made with two coordinating batik fabrics. I serged all the edges of the duvet so it can get washed repeatedly. I mitered the corners to create a frame around a center panel. The sides are mirrored. I attached ties to the corners of the blanket and the cover to keep them together. The duvet closes with a zipper.