Baby Blanket Tutorial

Okay, so I wanted to make a baby blanket for the IEC (International Embroidery Conference) which is held in Indiana in Sept/Oct.  The organization collects baby blankets to give to babies of deployed military personnel.  I think this is a great thing to do and I wanted to do my share.  I thought if I posted the instructions that I used for others, then maybe, they would see how easy  they are to make.

First get your materials ready.  You will need 2 1/2 yds. of flannel or t-shirt material.  Both fabrics make really nice blankies.  You will need thread to stitch the blanket together and thread for stitching the design.   Gotta have the design since this is an embroidery conference.   I chose my thread by Mettler.  It is varigated.  I got three small spools since the design I'm using is redwork.  This way I can make brown camo, green camo , and pink camo.

Flannel is usually 42 inches wide.  Cut two 40 inch pieces  and square them up by folding one corner up to the opposite corner and making a triangle.  Trim the edges and cut selveges off.  When both pieces are trimmed and cut, put them together and trim again, making sure they are the same size

The next step  is to curve your corners..   I did this by taking a piece of computer paper and placing a plate upside down at the corner and tracing a small semi circle.  After tracing cut this out and use the corner as your template .  This way all corners are the same.  I cut thru the two squares together.  Do this 4x  once for each corner.  Now each corner should be curved.

The next step is to decide where you want to place your design.  I want to place this one  in the corner but not to close to the bottom.  Take your ruler and measure to where you want the center of the design to be and mark with a small dot.  Stitching should cover it but just in case use a water soluable pencil or a very light led pencil.

Stitch your design.  After the design has completely stitched out put the two right sides of the blanket together (design will be turned to the inside) and stitch all around the edge, leaving a 4 inch opening so you can turn the blanket inside out.  Iron and  hand stitch the opening with a whip stitch.  You can then put a top stitch all around the outer edge of the blanket or leave it plain.
You can find the design

(here)