Several months ago I received a gift from my adorable sister-in-law. She and her mom had made a cute little blanket out of the oh-so-soft Cuddle Fabric (Minky), and it could not be a more perfect size for a new little infant! Now, as you know I like to sew and I make lots of blankets for babies, but this one was different than the average flannel receiving blanket that we all get millions of before our bundles of joy arrive. If you have never run your hand across this wonderful cuddle fabric, make a trip to your nearest fabric store right now and do it! Go on, you can finish reading this post after you have done so!
Ok, now that I have you convinced that it's the closest thing to heaven you will find in a fabric, you can go ahead and make one of these blankets!
First of all, you need to decided if you want your blanket to be two colors or just one. Either way you will need 1 yard of each fabrics. If you choose two different colors, you will have enough fabric to make two blankets, if you want both the front and back of your blanket to be the same, you will only end up making one. Why? Minky is a 60" wide fabric. Buy a yard of it, cut it in half width-wise and you are ready to sew.
Now, take your two pieces of fabric and place them right sides together (the soft cuddle side) and pin all the way around.
Next, take your fabric to your sewing machine and sew a 1/2 inch seam - straight stitch all the way around leaving a 2-3 inch opening at the end. However, do this on a straight edge of the blanket and not a corner. Trust me, it just makes it easier when finishing.
I have found when sewing minky it is so much easier to use a walking foot. If your machine has one, use it! If not, you can use your regular foot, just be careful not to pull the fabric while feeding it through. Its a very "stretchable" fabric, and we don't want our blanket to look all wonky when it's finished.
After you have sewn a seam, leaving an opening, turn your blanket right sides out. Make sure you press you corners out well, to give them a straight pointed look. I sometimes use my scissors to do this.
(See the nice crisp corner?)
Now you need to find the section of your opening and turn the fabrics in toward each other, pinning together. Take this to your machine and just off the edge of the fabric, sew a straight stitch across where the opening would be (I do this a couple of times to make sure it never comes open). This is when you need to make sure your thread matches the lightest fabric you have! Minky is a very forgiving fabric in the sense that after sewing this seam, you can kind of run your fingers through it, fluff it up and you will hardly be able to tell that you made a seam there. However, if you use black thread on white fabric, you will probably notice.
Now you can finish you blanket. Again, pin all the way around your blanket and this time, use a 3/4"-1" seam and sew a straight stitch all the way around.
And it's really that simple!
I like to roll up these cute little things and tie them with a piece of ribbon or tule when giving as a gift. I think it just adds that little extra touch that you care.
You can do this gift for around $20 (depending on your fabric store prices). Not too bad, if you ask me!
Let me know if you have any questions!
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