A friend had her baby yesterday. I didn't get her quilt finished in time. I'm trying to figure out free motion quilting. So instead, I brought her a couple large "receiving" blankets. Not sure what else to call them. These have become my standard gift for new babies. Someone made me one when my son was born and I loved it. It's plenty big enough to cover a nursing mom and will completely cover an infant carseat, without dragging on the ground. Plus, the two sides are different fabrics, so you make one side the "ground side" and not worry about a clean place to set your baby at the park, church, a friend's house. And they are quilting-type 100% cotton, so the blanket folds up small enough to fit in a diaper bag, purse, even a winter coat pocket. So far I've been able to avoid making any identical to one another (one side may match someone else's blanket, but the other sides will be different.) And you can make them affordably...I hunt remnant bins and sales and try to keep the total fabric cost under $5.
Here's how I make them:
1. Take 2 yards of fabric (preferably different prints/colours) and place them face-to-face. (If one fabric is considerably darker than the other, you may want to pre-wash, otherwise, I just throw them in the wash before delivering them. I also like to square up the non-selvage edges ahead of time.)
2. Sew a straight stitch around 4 sides, leaving a gap large enough to turn the blanket right-side out. I like to leave a 1/2 inch seam.
3. Trim corners so they don't bunch up inside blanket.
4. Turn blanket right-side out and press.
5. Hand-stitch the gap closed. (Your blanket could be done now, but I prefer to do one more thing.)
6. Using a decorative stitch and fun-coloured thread, top-stitch around the entire blanket. (The 1/2 inch seam will be sewn down in this step, minimizing the pulling and bunching up of the edges in the laundry.)
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