Receiving Blankets Tutorial {Part II}

Okay lets get this blanket sewed! Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to finish up this tutorial, but it take forever to upload pictures...no lie, it has taken me longer to put this post together then finish the blanket.

Pick a pinned side and sew straight down a quarter of an inch in.

This is what it looks like as you come to the end of one side...be sure that you've kept the bulk of the red fabric out of the way as you sew down...you only want the two edges to be sewed together...
This is what your side should look like after you sew.

This is how it should look as you go to do the next side...I've kept my red material out of the way in the corner, we will take care of all the corners later...also remember that when you come to your fourth side, leave a nice 7-10 inch opening in the middle so you can flip it right side out.

This is what it should look like in every corner once you've sewed up each side.

Here is a picture of the opening I've left on one side so that I can turn it right side out once it's time...don't flip it yet, we still need to take care of the corners.

The top of blanket before the corners and before I've flipped it right side out.

Picture of the back before corners have been sewed.

Now the corners....have your iron and ironing board ready...here is our first corner...they should all look like this.

Pinch and....

Fold it over...

Then grab the point at the top and fold down again...give it a nice pressing with your iron...you are trying to make a nice guild line of where to sew.

Here is my guild line after pressing and opening my fold.

Sew along that line.

Cut off the excess.

Picture of what it should look like after you've sewed, cut and opened up the area.

Do the same to the other three corners and then you are ready to turn right side out...your corner should look like this.

The side of the blanket should look like this when it's right side out.

Here I've located my opening and I'm preparing the area to be sewed up during my top stitch around the whole blanket...I've just folded the red down to meet up with the dino fabric and ironed it a little to stay in place for when I feed it through the machine.

This where I position my foot peddle for the top stitch...I like to pick a fun stitch, like a zig zag or any thing nice and thick and cool looking...that all depends on what your machine has to offer and what you like. Stitch all the way around and and your done!

Fold or roll up how ever you want...I usually roll up a few and tie with a strip of one of the fabrics or use a cute ribbon...it's kinda neat looking if you've made two or three for someone and they are all tied up together with a cute little tag....but that is all up to you. Obviously you can do several different things with this idea once you've put your mind around making your first one...you could do matching burp cloths (rectangular or whatever), etc. Have fun!

RBT {Part I}

I'm going to post a few more pictures so that maybe it might answer a couple of the questions already received...

This is the back of the pinned blanket...you are looking at the larger fabric and it is not smooth like the top fabric...it is kinda bubbly/bulky (essentially you are making the binding as you go, that is why the back fabric is larger...you will not be doing a binding once the blanket is turned right side out...you will have already taken care of that....but I will be posting that on Part II of the Receiving Blanket Tutorial so don't worry about that yet)

And here is another picture of the top for reference

I think maybe I will try to do a small video click and post it on the blog to go back over the pinning process....It might be easier to understand that way

Receiving Blankets Tutorial {Part I}

I'm going to try my hardest to do a tutorial on how to make these very easy receiving blankets. When I say easy, I mean you'll be able to make two in one evening and be so excited and proud of yourself that you completely such an easy and cute blanket for the up coming baby shower you have in two days. The hardest part will be my tutorial...I hope I don't make it more complicated by explaining it with words and pictures...for that reason, I'm going to do this in parts. Tonight, I will explain how to prepare, cut and pin the material-that way if there are any questions, we can answer as we go...here goes:

1-buy 1 yard of a fun flannel fabric and 1 1/2 yards of a complementary flannel fabric for the back of the receiving blanket.

2-wash, dry and iron your fabric

3-fold each fabric in half and then in half again...it should look like a rectangle.

4-lay your 1 yard folded rectangle on your cutting mat and cut to a perfect square. Make the square as big as the fabric will allow depending on how uneven the sides are. It usually will only make a 15-17 inch square. Refer to the pictures below (mine was already cut...sorry...mine ended up being 15x15...so obviously once I unfold the fabric it will be a 30x30 square...BUT DON'T OPEN YOUR FABRIC YET)

5-do the same thing as in step 4 with your 1 1/2 of flannel fabric---whatever your smaller fabric ended up being, will decide what you will cut your large square...for example, my small folded fabric was 15x15 so my larger folded fabric had to be 5 inches larger 20x20....if yours is 16.5x16.5, then your larger fabric will be 21.5x21.5 (that's folded remember...when you open up your larger fabric it will be 10 inches larger....so my folded 15x15 and 20x20 squares with open up to be 30x30 and 40x40), here are a few pictures. (again mine was already cut before I decided to do this tutorial)
6-don't unfold anything yet...give them both a nice press with the iron along their folded sides to get the fabric to remember those creases.

7-now open up your fabric.

8-put right sides together and match up a center line on the smaller fabric with a center line on the larger fabric.

9-Pin the top at the center (where your ironed lines are)

10-then pin that whole side (it's a little hard to see my pins in the picture below, but they are there)

11-next, turn and repeat steps 8-10, obviously you'll have to pull the smaller fabric up and over to meet center ironed lines together...I've tried to capture the process in the following pictures. You will do this four times, the pinning process that is, since there are four sides in a square.

Your corners will start to look like this as you go around...

Once you've pinned all sides your project should look something like this...

Please comment with any questions...tomorrow we will begin sewing.