Patriotic Baby

• My sister made a blanket for my youngest when he was born - Snoopy at that (my favourite cartoon character). Jonah loves his blanket. The problem is that he loves his blanket so much it's hard to find a time to wash it.

 

So, this project was not on my summer sewing list but it became high priority. When I went to the fabric store I really didn't want camo or cars/trucks. Thankfully it's almost Canada Day so we went with a patriotic pattern. You will need two pieces of flannel - one meter (yard) of each.

This pattern is so easy that even the most novice person on a sewing machine could make one of these blankets. They would make a great baby shower gift. I know that I love to receive handmade gifts no matter how simple they are.

 

The first thing to do is to trim your two pieces so they are exactly the same length. Then you will want to trim the sides. You need to take the selvedge edges off. If you lay one piece on top of the other they will be trimmed to the same width. I use my rotary blade and mat. You could do this with scissors, but let me tell you a rotary blade makes life so much easier. I love mine.

Now lay your two pieces together with the right sides facing each other. Starting in the middle of one side sew a straight seam all around the four edges stopping about three inches from where you started. Before you turn it inside out clip each of the four corners. This will make your corners sharper when you turn the blanket right side out.

Now there are several ways you could close up the hole left from where you turned the blanket inside out. You could hand sew it shut. You could sew a ribbon across the whole side where the hole is - that's what my sister did on the blanket she made. It will give the blanket a nice satiny edge that so many babies seem to enjoy fingering. Or you could do what I did. I didn't have any ribbon so I turned the raw edge to the inside of the blanket, and then I sewed a decorative edge around the four edges of the blanket.

Jonah loves it and so do I. So simple and if you buy the fabric on sale (mine was 75% off) it's an inexpensive gift.

He still wants to be swaddled when he goes to sleep. Here he is enjoying being swaddled in his new blanket - seconds away from falling to sleep.

What do you think? Could/would you make one of these?