Waterproof Beach Blanket DIY

Craft Ideas Books, Quilting, Summer Crafts

:: Keep yourself dry and comfortable w this DIY waterproof beach blanket ::

This free summer craft project idea of making a waterproof beach blanket for a garden picnic or for the beach is part of a series here at Fine Craft Guild.com called ‘How to Live in a Coastal cottage, many miles inland.

A good old-fashioned waterproof beach blanket is what I should have made last week. But I didn’t. I got all muddy and yucky. Time to do something about it, before my next outdoor picnic adventure. Let me share the craft tutorial for a waterproof beach blanket that I found. Then we can both create and use a wonderful waterproof beach blanket … for camping, the beach, and/or lazing around in your own garden.

waterproof beach blanket

… after the rainstorm is over and the sun is out again!

.. the Martha Stewart design team just reminded me.

“Don’t let yesterday’s rainstorm
dampen your picnic plans.”

photo here & below: martastewart.com

For this summer craft project, you could use a cotton or wool blanket, or as I prefer, 2 colorful large beach towels. There are several waterproof fabrics available, one of which is ripstop, a fabric that is also resistant to ripping. Look around at your local fabric shop, and hopefully you can find a better color match than the one in the pictures here…

Waterproof Beach Blanket Sewing Instructions
1. Prewash all materials so that any potential shrinkage is dealt with.
2. If you use 2 beach towels, sew these together into one large square blanket first.
3. Cut the water repellent/water proof fabric to be 2 inches larger in each direction than your blanket. The 2 extra inches all around are to create a fold-over which looks nice and is easy to stitch.

4. Now you have 2 options. 1) You can sew your waterproof fabric onto your pretty top fabric or towels permanently. Or 2) you can use Velco or snaps and create a non-permanent waterproof bottom layer onto your beach blanket.

I prefer the non-permanent bottom blanket layer, so that I can use that bottom layer also for other beach towel blankets, as well as a ‘carpet’ of sorts for when we go camping.

Attaching your waterpoof Bottom to Your Beach Blanket

Snaps always do look professional. However, unless you can find suitable snaps on a tape, I’d use a few pieces of Velcro along the outline of the blanket instead. So much easier for me. More forgiving of my ‘sloppyness/randomness’. Velco does not need to be placed as precisely placed as snaps. Plus, Velco allows you to use the same backing for a couple of different blankets or sheets more easily.

And there you have it. Happy lounging… !

This summer craft project is easy to do. But if making your own waterproof beach blanket is too much work, then realize that there are great ones on sale here online. Take a peek.