Quick and easy baby blanket

Friday, October 03, 2014

Oh em gee.


This fabric is the most super-huggable, must-havable, soft-as-anything stuff. Here in the UK it's called dimple cuddle plush, but it seems that almost everywhere else it is called minky. Soft like mink? Not sure. But. Seriously. Once I felt it, I really wanted to replace all of my bedding with yards and yards of it. I wanted to wrap up in it like a giant fabric burrito and hide away from the world. If it was socially acceptable, I'd replace my entire wardrobe with cuddle plush dresses. Seriously.


Okay okay. So, I bought some. Just a wee bit -- a mere 75x100cm. It was destined to be a baby blanket. But, silly me, when buying it from Plush Addict online, I didn't notice that it was single sided. The back wasn't soft at all. I was gutted. My plans for the quickest and easiest baby blanket ever (fold over edges, stitch down and DONE) were foiled. I had to add a backing fabric. Still, it could be worse eh?


I cut the backing about two inches larger all round, got out my sewing machine's walking foot, and quilted the two layers together using really simple diagonal lines. I didn't measure - I just counted every ten dots and stitched a diagonal line down. It's really easy to get the lines nice and straight when the fabric has a consistent pattern. Then, I cut the lining down to an inch larger all round and folded each edge over in half, pressing as I went along.


Fold it over one more time and stitch down - and you're done. You have a perfectly bound-from-the-back baby blanket that's done in twenty minutes or less. Ta da! I feel very proud of myself. Like a minky-wrapped Cheshire Cat.


If, like me, you prefer a neatly folded mitred corner on your quilts, that's easy too. When you get to a corner, unfold the next side's edges and neatly fold the corner fabric back on itself to make a triangle corner, lining the edge of the fold up with the edge of the front fabric. You might need to look at the picture for that to make sense. 


Then fold the unfolded-side's binding in half, and back over the front as usual.

The cuddle plush fabric is in the tiffany blue colourway. I bought it partially because I love that soft aqua colour, and partially because of the name. I know, it's like judging a book by its cover. Shocking. The backing fabric I chose is navy blue scattered with white, burgundy, blue and pink flowers (from Stitch). If the cuddle plush wasn't so expensive, I'd make a guilt-free adult-sized version for my bed - can you imagine the softness in winter?!

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