The Cheater's Baby Blanket

My sister had to have a c section rather suddenly so I didn't end up having much time to put together a gift to take to the hospital. She had mentioned she needed more receiving blankets so I came up with the cheater's baby blanket in a pinch. If you can sew a straight line, you can do this project!

You will need:
1 yard of main fabric
1 yard of coordinating fabric
matching thread
scissors
straight edge or ruler
rotary cutter (optional)
a lid or something round to trace (optional)
disappearing marker (optional)

 First of all, you need to wash your fabrics. Different fabrics shrink differently so it's a good idea to wash and dry them first before you sew them together.

 Next grab each yard and iron it flat.

 Once they are ironed, lay down your first layer right side up.

 Now lay your second layer on top of the first right side down so that the right sides are facing. You will notice now that each layer will more than likely be cut and and shrunk a little differently so there will be some overlap.

Grab your first corner and pin the corner together. 

Now pin around the blanket. It doesn't have to be super pinned. If you look closely at the picture you can see that I put around 4-5 pins on each side. 

 See how big of a difference there is in my edges? Now we're going to fix that!

 Now line your straight edge or ruler up along the side and trim the excess so that each side is even.

 Now there shouldn't be any excess.

 This step is entirely optional. I wanted rounded corners to dress the blankets up a bit so I grabbed my embroidery hoop and traced around each corner to get a rounded edge with my disappearing marker. You can get this marker at Walmart for a dollar or two and it's soooooo useful!

 Here's a closeup of my rounded corner.

Now I found it helpful to mark off my start and stop point (about 3 inches apart) so I didn't close it off entirely like the awesome seamstress I can sometimes be! Yes, I have totally done it before and have to unpick a hole to turn something right side out again! 

 Now sew around the blanket making sure to stop where your line is and not where you started from.

 Now trim the excess off being careful not to cut your stitches!

 Reach your hand into the blanket through that nice gap we left and pull the far corners out. After a little poking and pulling you should have your blanket right side out!

 Iron it down flat.

As you iron you will come across the gap we left to turn the blanket right side out. Make sure those edges fold under nicely and iron them. I stuck a few pins in them to hold them in place while we topstitch around. 

 Now topstitch around the whole blanket. This will close that gap we left and give the blanket a finished look! If you are having trouble with all that fabric pulling on your sewing machine, pull your ironing board up next to it to hold the weight of the extra fabric like I did.


And you're done!

 Now go make them in a bunch of colors because it only takes an hour or so to make!

Seriously easy right?!? I'm sure none of you guys needed this tutorial, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all your lovely comments! Hope you are having a great week! XOXO

Ahoy! Sailor Shorts

I made Evie a pair of shorts for the first time a few days ago! I have never made her pants or shorts, i've always been intimidated of all that sloping and whatnot but it was actually fairly painless! 

I used Kelly from Sewing in No Man's Land's tutorial for good looking pants and shortened them. I love her instructions for faux pockets! It was really easy and I think it looks real! I made a sort of piping (I say sort of because really all I did was fold a strip of white broadcloth in half) and sewed it onto the front of the faux pocket to give it a little contrast. 

 I would definitely recommend trying her tutorial but whatever you do don't go all crazy and think you could just sew the fronts together, then the backs together and then sew them together. Nope. Do it her way, trust me! It's much easier!

 We took the shorts for a test run in the emptied inflatable pool. We then decided that Evie was ready for it without the shorts, so I changed her into her swimsuit. Ignore the flip flops that don't match please. ;)

I hope you guys are all having an awesome summer! I don't know if it's the heat or pregnancy but I have seriously lost my sewing mojo lately. Ya know where you walk by your sewing machine, awkwardly avoiding eye contact because you don't want to make it obvious you haven't talked in a long time and then you'll have to ask about the kids but you don't remember it's kid's names so then you'll just be embarassed....and then you'll have to fumble through excuses as to why you don't talk anymore.....what? Am I the only one who considers my sewing machine another person? Yeah i'm that crazy sometimes. Thanks for reading anyway! ;)

Have a great week everyone!! XOXO