Self-Binding Baby Blankie

I'M ALIVE!!  Again, I've been so MIA, and I've missed you!  I have this thing called a day-job, and sometimes I'm sent on business trips.  Away from my family, away from my sewing machine, away from blogland.  Le sigh.  It's been a long month or so.  I hope my absence hasn't made me completely obselete!

But I'm back.  And I have a fun project to share with you!  I'm not a quilter, but I pinned this binding trick by The Crafting Chicks:

I should back up a bit - when my mom was visiting over the 4th of July, I dragged her to G Street, since we were shopping in the general vicinity.  As we were browsing, a particular fabric caught her eye.  She did a double take, but it was, indeed, a fabric featuring the characters from my son's absolute favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba (Dah-bah?!).  I pounced.  I bought more than I needed.  When we got home, I layed it on the ground, and my son faceplanted on it, giggling and yelling "DAAHBAAAAH!"  Just his excitement alone gave me the motivation to get to work on a blankie for him.

I found the right Minky for the job from Minky Delight Fabrics and off I went to cut out the blanket.  Sidenote - do you know that there is not really a standard for baby blanket dimensions?  I found that very frustrating.  I'm a pattern girl, and if there isn't a pattern, give me exact, correct, precise dimensions for me to go on.  My Google Search left me with too many options.

I ended up cutting the Minky and batting to be 30" wide X 36" long and the Gabba fabric to extend 2.5" from each side - I wanted a 2" binding on the green side.  This is where I deviated from The Crafting Chicks method - I didn't want to have a thick binding (top fabric + Minky + batting folded over itself twice) so I eliminated the bulk by just folding over the top Gabba fabric.

 

I took the Gabba fabric and pressed 1/2" under on all sides.

I then folded that edge under again 2.5".

 

In order to get the right fit, I unfolded it and placed my Minky and batting inside.  I trimmed an excess fabric that overlapped the pressed edge.

 



 

I improvised the next few steps, and I tried to document it in photographs.  I first folded in one of the corner edges - the triangle symbolizes where the folded fabric originally was - it's now been folded inside.  This eliminated the appearance of the double layer of fabric.

 

It looked like this, once folded under - much cleaner. 

 



 

I pinned the self-binding to the Minky and sewed 1/8 inch from the edge of the Gabba fabric.

 

 This is where I fudged a binded corner.  I took the remaining square edge/flap, and tucked a triangle inside.  The black triangle below symbolizes where the original fabric originally was.  Like I said, I improvised.  Fake it til you make it, right?

I finished by edge-stitching all the way around the outside, and then tacking the diagonal corners down.



What can I say, I seek progress rather than perfection!  :-)





It's not my best work, but my son loves it, and that's all that really matters, right?

******

 



Remember how I said I bought too much of the Yo Gabba Gabba fabric?  As luck would have it, there was just enough to make a pair of Huck Finn pants from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross!  Since the 24M size was too short for my 19M guy, I lengthened the pattern by 2 inches.

UHaul packing paper makes GREAT pattern tracing paper.  More durable than tissue paper, but just transparent enough to see the pattern lines underneath.  Who knew?!

 The fabric on the blanket was loud, and on the pants it's even louder.  So ridiculously cute!

I put him in the pants and he did an adorable 19-month dance, chanting "Daahbaah, Dahbah, Dahbah!!" which is really all I need to feel like an accomplished human in this world.

Yes, he is a Certified Hunk.

I really need to make a ton of these pants out of the fabric scraps that I've been hoarding over the years.  Friends with babies better look out.  They might just end up with a random pair of Huck Finn pants in their mailbox in the coming months!