Thursday, February 17, 2011

Simple & Super Soft Baby Blanket

One of my Mom's best friends, Anne, just welcomed her first grandchild into the world.  A beautiful baby girl! Anne and her husband Bob are just the greatest people, they have always been so supportive of not only my mom but me.  Anne even helped to plan & run my bridal shower with my mom.  So I really wanted to do something nice for them in this super exciting time. I figured baby blankets are so fabulous, they get dirty easily so you can never really have enough to swap out while another is washing.  Plus Anne & Bob's son, daughter-in-law and now granddaughter all live in Norway! So when they come over to visit I am positive they are not going to want to shelp everything.  I figure this way they can have a sweet little baby blanket on hand when they come to visit, one less thing to pack. 

Here is a sneak peak at the finished product:



I headed to the fabric store (one of my most favorite places) to stock up on what I needed.  I decided to go with this suuuuuuuper soft pink minky fabric:
You can find that stuff in the baby section of the fabric store, or even online here. Its so amazing even my husband wants a blanket of it haha!

For the other side I chose a yellow fleece backed satin which is silky smooth and will be nice and cool on the baby's face:

Here is a full list of materials you will need for the project:
  • Sewing Machine (or an insane amount of patience of you want to hand sew)
  • 1.5 yard minky fabric
  • 1.5 yard fleece backed satin fabric
  • Pins
  • Coordinating 2" Satin Blanket Binding
  • Fabric scissors
  • Pinking sheers

Here are the instructions, keep in mind I am not the greatest sewer so they are a little loose if you will.  But if you have questions you can ask me in the comments section!
  • Pre-wash & dry your fabrics according to the instructions (which are located on the bolt of fabric you got it off at the fabric store).  In this case I washed both on gentle cycle and dried on low heat.
  • Gently on low heat iron your silky fabric, trust me it will need it!
  • Cut both of your fabrics out to 36"x 36" squares (you can make the blanket bigger or smaller but keep in mind its for a baby!)
  • Pin your two squares togather wrong sides facing.  I recommend using A LOT of pins since the silky fabric is just that, silky, and will move around a lot if its not secure.
  • With your sewing machine, using a 1/2 inch seam allowance sew around the entire blanket, picking your pressure foot up and turning your fabric when you get to corners. Using a straight stitch is best for this step.
  • Now with a pinky sheers cut around your seam allowance to prevent from fraying.
  • Next step is to pin your blanket binding all the way around your blanket, and be sure to make mitered corners. ** Warning I am a bad blogger and didnt take pics of this which I should have.  Here is a youtube video to help you, or google "mitering a corner for sewing" and you will find lots of help.
  • Now sew your blanket binding on to the blanket, using either a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch.  Try to sew as close to the raw edge of the binding as possible so you dont have any hanging off the blanket.
I am going to be making another one of these soon for a friend who is expecting a baby boy in June, so I promise to take more pictures and give better instructions then!

Here are some shots of the blanket all done up!



I am linking to:
handmade projects    A Crafty Soiree Photobucket  

3 comments:

  1. Oh how funny! I just did a tutorial on a very similar blanket yesterday! ....great minds.... :) I love the bubble velour (Minky).

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  2. Just checked our your too! Got some more great tips! Thanks for being my first follower :)

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  3. Cute blanket - bookmarked! A lot of our friends are preggers so this would be a cute gift for them. Thanks!!

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Thanks so much for your comments, I love getting them!!