Outdoor Blanket with Climashield Insulation

How to Sew an Outdoor Blanket – DIY

An outdoor blanket is a highly versatile piece of camping gear for cooler days. It’s perfect for long hours by the campfire, especially when no one is adding more wood.

Required Materials:

Tools:

  • Scissors
  • Level, board, or long ruler
  • Tailor’s chalk
  • Pins for joining fabrics
  • Home sewing machine

Step 1 – Preparation for Sewing

Lay the Ripstop Nylon 10D fabrics on top of each other and pin them together along each edge, about 1 cm from the edge.

Also, pin the black webbing straps with the LB-LW buckle attached on one of the longer sides of the blanket (the exact distance between the straps is up to you — we placed them 70 cm apart, meaning 35 cm from the center line of the blanket).

Since the blanket will be sewn inside out, remember to attach the straps with the buckle facing inward, so that once you turn the blanket right side out, the straps and buckle will end up on the outside (see photos for reference).

Step 2 – Joining the Nylon Fabrics

Sew the two pieces of fabric together along the line marked by the pinned pins using a sewing machine. Also stitch the webbing straps in place. In our case, the corners are rounded. To help draw a rounded corner, you can use a piece of cardboard cut to the desired shape and tailor’s chalk.

Note: When sewing along the edges, leave an opening of about 30 cm to turn the fabric right side out.

Step 3 – Sewing the Climashield to the Nylon Layers

Lay the sewn nylon fabric on top of the Climashield insulation and pin the fabric to the edges of the insulation. Then, sew the pinned layers together along the edge (following the seam created when the two nylon layers were stitched).

Tip: When sewing on the machine, keep the Ripstop Nylon on top — this makes it much easier to feed the fabric smoothly under the presser foot.

Note: At the spot where you left the opening to turn the blanket right side out, sew only one layer (e.g., the graphite nylon) to the Climashield insulation, so that you can still turn the blanket right side out later.

Step 4 – Closing the Opening

After sewing the fabric to the Climashield, turn the blanket right side out and sew the remaining opening closed. Fold the edges of the nylon inward and pin the layer of nylon to the nylon layer already sewn to the Climashield.

Step 5 – Quilting

On the blanket, draw horizontal lines for quilting (in our case, spaced 16.5 cm apart). It can be helpful to pin the layers of the blanket together (see photo). Sew along the horizontal lines.

Next, draw vertical lines also spaced 16.5 cm apart and sew along them. This creates a grid pattern with squares measuring 16.5 cm × 16.5 cm.

Now all that’s left is to head into the woods and test the blanket by the campfire… and once it’s burned down 😉

Good luck!