Fast and easy. Soft and cuddly. Isn’t that what we all want in a toasty holiday throw to ward off winter’s chills?! Our bound luxury plush blanket has you covered. In fact, this project went so quickly, we actually forgot to stop to take pictures! Instead, we’ve included some helpful illustrations of the simple steps, as well as links to our two detailed tutorials on bias binding. We chose an embossed luxury plush but you could also use a solid color without texture. The binding is a velvet, which allows you to take the rich softness all the way to the edge.

The main trick with binding is to remember that slow and steady wins the race. Plush fabrics can be a little bit stretchy, so don’t be afraid to use lots of pins and to stitch slowly. With these thicker fabrics, we also recommend hand stitching the back of the binding in place for the best finish. For extra control under the needle, consider using a Walking or Even Feed foot or engaging your machine’s built-in fabric feeding system, such as the AcuFeed™ Flex system we love to use on many of our Janome studio machines.

Our sample is done is a rich gray luxury plush with a pretty vine pattern embossing. This is bound with a deep red velvet. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg (nope… that sounds too harsh). But that’s just the cusp of the cloud (ahhhh… much better). Browse your favorite in-store or online fabric retailer for the best color and texture options.

The blanket finishes at approximately 58″ x 58″.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Sewing Machine and standard presser foot
• Walking or Even Feed foot; optional but helpful for thicker layers – or use your machine’s built-in fabric feeding system, such as the Janome AcuFeed™ Flex system 
• Quarter Inch Seam foot; another option for attaching the binding

Fabric and Other Supplies

• 1⅝ yards of 58″+ wide single-sided or double-sided luxury plush for the body of the blanket
• 1 yard of 44″+ wide velvet for the blanket binding
• All purpose thread to match fabric
• See-through ruler
• Measuring tape
• Yardstick
• Fabric pen or pencil
• Seam gauge
• Seam ripper
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Iron and ironing board
• Straight pins
• Hand sewing needle

Getting Started and Template Download

1. Download and print out our one template sheet: Throw Corner Template.
   IMPORTANT: This pattern is ONE 8½” x 11″ sheet. You must print the PDF file at 100%. DO NOT SCALE to fit the page. There is a guide rule on the page so you can confirm your final printout is to scale.
2. Cut out the template along the solid line. 
3. From the luxury plush for the body of the blanket, cut ONE 58″ x 58″ square. Make sure your square is straight and true so your blanket will hang nicely.
   NOTE: This is the full Width of Fabric. If your fabric choice is slightly narrower or wider, you should still use the WOF simply adjusting the height to match to create a square.
4. Using the corner template, round each of the four corners.
   
5. From the binding fabric (the velvet in our sample), cut enough 4″ wide binding strips to yield 250″ of binding.
   
   NOTE: If you are new to working with bias binding, take a look at our detailed tutorial, Bias Binding: Figuring Yardage, Cutting, Making, Attaching.

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

1. Stitch together the strips of bias binding end to end to make one continuous length. As with all bias binding, you will criss-cross the angled ends of the strips, stitch with a ¼” seam allowance, and press open each tiny seam. Again, don’t forget about our binding tutorial if you are already confused.
   
2. Fold the binding in half, wrong sides together, making a verrrrrrry long strip of double fold binding that is now 2″ in width. Press lightly, using a pressing cloth to protect the nap of the velvet. It’s also good to cover your ironing board with a plush terry bath towel to further protect the nap when pressing.
3. Thread the machine with thread to best match the binding in the top and bobbin. Slightly lengthen the stitch to accommodate stitching through the thicker layers. If you’re unsure of your settings, test with some layers of scraps.
   NOTE: You can use a regular presser foot, a Quarter Inch Seam foot, a Walking or Even Feed foot or engage your machine’s built-in fabric feeding system.
4. Starting in the middle of one 58″ side, and leaving about 6″ loose at the head, pin the binding to the right side of the blanket with the raw edges of the binding even with the raw edges of the fabric panel. 
5. You may feel compelled to pin the binding all the way around, however, on big projects like this, you may find it works better for you to leave the binding loose, guiding it into place as you sew.
   NOTE: For additional help, see our second binding tutorial: A Complete Step-by-Step For Binding Quilts & Throws.
6. Stitch the binding to the blanket, using a ¼” seam allowance. Remember to lock your stitch at the beginning and to leave that 6″ extra length un-sewn at the head.
   NOTE: If you have a serger, this is a good project on which to use it. You can serge the binding to the blanket. Because the luxury plush can be a bit stretch, the edge can curl, making it harder to work with. The serged edge can help control this. 
7. Go slowly around the curved corners to keep your seam a consistent ¼”.
   
   
8. Continue sewing until you are approximately 6″ from where you started along that first side.
9. We used a simple overlap of the head and tail. You could also un-fold and align the raw ends of the head and tail right sides together – trimming and adjusting as necessary so the binding lays nice and flat against the blanket.
   NOTE: We are summarizing the joining steps because everyone has their favorite way to complete their binding. If you are brand new to the technique, as we’ve mentioned above, take a look at our tutorial: A Complete Step-by-Step For Binding Quilts & Throws. We show detailed instructions for this overlap method of joining as well as the angled seam method. 
10. Finish your seam, matching the previous stitching line and making sure the raw edges of the fabric are flush. 
11. Starting along one side, wrap the folded edge of the binding from the front around to the back of the project, making sure this folded edge extends beyond the previous stitching line.
    
12. Thread a hand sewing needle and hand stitch the binding in place against the back of the blanket. 
13. In the photo below, we’re showing a darker thread and larger stitches so you can see the technique. You should use matching thread and small, even stitches. At risk of sounding like a broken record, we have additional details and hand stitching photos in our tutorial: A Complete Step-by-Step For Binding Quilts & Throws. 
14. Yes… you could machine stitch the binding in place, but with the stretchiness of the luxury plush and the thickness of all the layers with the velvet binding, we recommend finishing the binding by hand. Break out that DVD of It’s A Wonderful Life and relax into the calm of hand stitching.
    

Project Design: Alicia Thommas
Sample Creation and Instructional Outline: Kathy Andrews, What Sew Ever