The Simplest Baby Blankets

>> Wednesday, September 17, 2014

I’m waist deep in baby prep right now! I’ve finally finished all the other ‘necessary’ projects before baby comes and I’ve been able to concentrate on baby stuff. And it feels good. I’ve never had any pre-term labor scares and have never had a baby before my due date but it still feels really good to finally be ready for this little one to come. I guess I should clarify that – I’ve still got lots of things I’d like to do before this baby arrives but at least now it will have diapers and clean clothes and a bed to sleep in and I have a place to sit to feed it. It’s kinda funny how that definition of ‘ready’ changes from your first baby to your fourth.

Anyways, one of the projects on my list was some simple baby blankets. We didn’t find out the sex of this baby and we already have three boys so I knew I would need to prep a couple girl things just in case. My favorite blankets with my boys have been large single layer flannelette receiving blankets. They are lightweight, yet cozy and make a great swaddle. So while I obviously have a few boy blankets that are ready to be used again, I wanted to whip up a couple girl versions.

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent
I found the flannelette on sale for around $3 a meter. I got 1 1/4 meters of each so that I could make them as large as possible. After I prewashed it, I laid it out on the floor and folded it on a diagonal to square it up. (This is way more than 1 1/4 meters. There was already a precut piece on the bolt and the lady just let me have it all.) I just used the width of the fabric as my sizing guide. It doesn’t really matter what size it is but I prefer them square and quite large. (The blanket in the picture above is folded over twice.)

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent

Then I just trimmed up the edges until they were straight and square.

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent

Then I folded the edges down 1/2” and ironed it.

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent

I only folded over the edges once because I didn’t want the hem to be bulky at all. Then I set my sewing machine to a zigzag stitch and sewed around all four edges with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. This stitched right over that raw edge and will help to eliminate most of the fraying. I do still anticipate it fraying a little so I will just check them when I take them out of the dryer the next few times and trim any stray threads. It’s a little hard to see the white thread on the white fabric, but this gives you an idea of how the zigzag stitch just enclosed the raw edge.

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent
On the front, it is just a simple zigzag border. I think it would be super cute to use a contrasting thread color but I didn’t have anything on hand.

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent

I’m so happy with how these turned out! And they only took me around 45 minutes to sew them both. Now we just need a baby to wrap up in them. And if we have another boy, they will make great (and inexpensive!) gifts!

Simple Baby Blanket - Ladybrook Crescent

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