Go To Baby Gift: Mitered Corner Receiving Blanket

I've posted about Mitered Corner Receiving Blankets before, but I love them.  They are cute, and fairly quick to make.  My two year old still carries one of his around with him.


Some friends of ours just recently welcomed twin boys to their family.  Since we live far apart, and we can't be there in person to snuggle those little babies, a soft flannel blanket from us will have to do.

I've been eyeing this Riley Blake flannel for quite some time. The Sasparilla line is absolutely adorable.

Such sweet prints.

 I also made one up with the orange main print from the Boy Crazy line.  Two different blankets for two different boys.

Lets hope they love them as much as we do. Tied up with some red and white baker's twine from Pick Your Plum, and these blankets make adorable gifts.

You can find a great tutorial for a mitered corner, or self bound baby blanket.

Sewing For Baby: Lightweight Knit Swaddle Blanket

Here's another sewing project for baby.  This one was extremely quick, and easy.  I don't know if you've ever seen the Aden and Anais swaddle blankets, but they are super soft and lightweight gauze material.  My sister received some at her last baby shower, and uses them all of the time when nursing.  They are light enough that the baby gets plenty of fresh air when snuggled up close to mama.  While I'd love some myself, they aren't in the budget at the moment.  Fortunately, I came up with an alternative.  I've had this extremely thin and light knit fabric in my stash for some time now.  I've used it in the past for baby tights, but hadn't found a suitable project for the remaining fabric that I had on hand. When sorting through my stash a few weeks back I realized that this would be the perfect material for a lightweight blanket.

 I cut a 42" square piece of material.  Set my serger settings for a scarf edge finish, and serged all four sides.  It was honestly such a fast project, and I can't wait to wrap my baby up in it.

The scarf edge finish is almost like a rolled hem, and it created a nice lettuce leaf effect on the lightweight knit.

When I purchased the fabric I found it for a dollar a yard, so this blanket cost me a little over a dollar to make. Huge savings compared to the Aden and Anais blankets-Woohoo! Now I'll go spend the savings on a box of diapers...urgggg.

I thought that I'd show you a quick pick of the finished nursery area.  It is part of our bedroom that sits in our basement.  We are fortunate to have a daylight window, along with a dividing wall.  The wall that the crib is up against separates our bed from his. We have just enough privacy, but I won't have to run upstairs for those mid-night feedings.

Mitered Corner Cuddle Receiving Blanket

Here's another receiving blanket that I made for our little boy on the way.  It is another mitered corner blanket, you can find my first mitered corner blanket here, and the tutorial here.  This blanket is made with flannel and soft cuddle fabric that I picked up in the remnant bin at Joann's.  I picked up the white cuddle fabric first, and was then left with the task of finding a coordinating flannel that I liked.  

I'm not one that typically selects baby blue for baby boys, but I loved the sweetness of this print from the Nate & Kate Child's Play line. I picked up the flannel at a local quilt shop.  It reminds me of childhood story books, and matches the crib bedding that we have quite nicely.  I think that it will be the perfect little blanket to rock the baby to sleep in.

It was a bit more difficult to sew the cuddle fabric than standard flannel, but it came together pretty well. If you make a similar blanket of your own, just remember not to iron embossed minky, as it will remove those precious little dots that probably convinced you to purchase the fabric in the first place. 

Thanks for reading.

Faux Chenille Blanket

Last week I finished another blanket for baby boy #2, somehow it's taken me all week to get around to posting it.

It is a faux chenille blanket based on Dana's tutorial that you can find here.  It was a bit time consuming, but I finished it in a couple of days, and I'd definitely make one again.

I purchased all of my fabric at Joann's.  The back is a fine wale corduroy, and the front has three layers of broadcloth.  The top layer is a bright green, the center layer is a jade green, and the bottom layer is a turquoise blue much like the binding.

I've only washed and dried this blanket once.  I'm sure that the more it's washed the softer the "chenille" rows will become.  I have a feeling that using flannel rather than broadcloth would cause the blanket to fray up even more, but I wasn't in love with any of the flannel that Joann's had to offer.

Mitered Corner Receiving Blanket

I mentioned yesterday that I'd already finished my first baby boy project.  Here it is, a simple mitered corner receiving blanket.

I've been trying to sew my way through my fabric stash since I found out that we were having a baby, but since Monday I've bought fabric everyday.  I've got a long list of sewing projects to prepare for baby

Funny....I really thought that I pressed this prior to taking photos.

My husband's aunt sewed up a similar receiving blanket for my Sister In Law's baby shower, and I decided that it was going on my "To Sew List".  

I found a great tutorial for it here, on Everyday Mom. All that it requires is one yard of the inner fabric, and one and a quarter yard of the back/border print. The print is a Michael Miller design, and the green polka dot border (which seemed to match much better in the fabric store), is from Riley Blake. It took less than an hour to put together.  Wahoo!