Waterproof a Blanket

So, here's a funny story for you. We went camping over Memorial Weekend.  On the drive there, it started to rain on us.  When we got there to set up camp, it stopped raining, but the ground was wet.  So I pulled out my waterproof blanket to set the little ones on.  As I was cleaning up camp to go to bed, I thought I'd pick up the blanket and turn it upside down over the tailgate of the truck so that the back side (the waterproof side) could dry.  Well, that night it rained and poured.  The next morning all of our camp chairs that we had left out and everything else we owned was WET.  But not my waterproof blanket.  I turned it back over and had a dry place for the

 little ones to sit!

So, here's how I made it.... I got the idea from Little Birdie Secrets here, but I made my own modifications.

Supplies....  

• vinyl table cloth (60x84)
• lots of old pants for quilt top
• 4 yards of flannel for quilt bottom
• 2 pkgs heavy duty snaps
• twill tape
• hammer.... I have to say that I tried using the setting kit that came with the snaps and I found my scrapbooking tools for eyelets to work much better.

1. I cut out 88 8" squares from old pants I had been saving.

2.  I sewed them together 8x11 squares. (this made my quilt 64"x88" -seam allowance)

3.  I bought 4 yards of flannel for the back and sewed that together. (that made it 72x90" so I had to cut a little off)

4.  I laid the flannel face down on the carpet and laid my quilt top face up on that.  

5.  I trimmed the flannel about 1.5 inches longer than the quilt top all the way around.

6.  I turned the flannel over twice and pinned it.

7.  I machine bound the edge of the quilt.

8.  I sewed a few random X's through the squares of the quilt to hold it together when washed.

9.  I bought a rectangle vinyl table cloth to  snap to the quilt.  I used twill tape everywhere I put the snaps to reinforce the table cloth.

10.  I bought heavy duty snaps and adhered them to the table cloth and quilt.

The best part about this is that I can use the table cloth as an actual table cloth and I can use the blanket without the waterproofing.  I just wipe the table cloth off and I can wash the blanket in the washing machine.

Another thought I had was to just buy a vinyl table cloth and a cloth table cloth and snap the two of them together.

-Anisa