My daughter is in Girl Guides and has accumulated so many badges that I was worried about fitting them all on her sash.  My friend Michelle suggested I make a “camping blanket” ~ basically a poncho for wearing at Girl Guide camp.  I thought this was a brilliant idea and proceeded to buy the fleece and set to work. I found a set of very simple instructions on-line and made my very first poncho!

Basic Poncho Instructions:

There were several pattern options to choose from. Click the image to visit the website.

Poncho Preparation and Sewing:

I was lucky enough to get the fabric on sale for around $10.  I found the poncho instructions to be very good, so I basically followed the step by step directions outlined above.  Click on an image to enlarge the photos to slideshow format.

I don’t include step 6 in my gallery, but obviously I sewed the hood on! I generally don’t pin, but I did pin the hood because I wanted it to fit just right. Make sure you pin with right sides of the fabric together so the seam is on the inside when you’re done. Also, make sure that the hood is centered on the opening. For this, I folded the poncho to find the center of the neck hole and then began my pinning from the seam at the back of the hood which was lined up with the center of the neck hole on the back of the poncho.

I was a bit nervous about the fringe. Although I was careful and patient, it did bring me back to the episode with Those Devilish Eggs.  I was worried that if I made one cut wrong, the whole thing would be ruined. I spent some time contemplating how to make the fringe cuts all the same length and finally got out my Sharpie and marked my scissors.  I just lined the fabric up to the mark with every cut and  “Voila!” all the same length.  I just “eyeballed” the width.The corners were a bit tricky, but I basically made cuts along both sides approximately 3″ from the corner and then slowly worked my way to the corner by angling each cut slightly.  The fringes are not “square” (rectangular) in the corner, but flow well with the rest of the cuts.

For the pockets, I basically looked one of my hoodies and decided to round the corners a bit.  I folded the fabric in half and cut through both pieces of fabric, so that the rounded corners would be the same.  I then folded the edges and made a finished seam around the pockets.  I made two pockets that were exactly the same size and attached one on the inside and one on the outside.  Michelle suggested the inside pocket and I thought it was a great idea, but didn’t want my stitches showing, so I just sewed the front pocket over the inside pocket stitches to hide them.  To be honest, I sewed the top of both the inside and outside pocket in one shot, but the sides and bottom were done separately.

All in all, it was quite easy to make and turned out well.  I was a bit disappointed that I had to add the badges to it, as it looked pretty good without them.  However, I did make the poncho for that purpose, and in the end it actually looks okay with the badges as well.  Eden didn’t know I was making it, and was really excited when I showed it to her.

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