A couple of my friends are currently pregnant so I have a great excuse to start sewing for babies again!
It is a wonderful way to make a personal and unique gift. There are lots of great ideas on Pinterest so I started a Pinterest board for things to sew for babies. You can check it out here.
I got invited to a baby shower for my friend Karen. She expecting her second child, and she is not finding out whether she is having a boy or a girl. As I am not quite sure which gear she already has, I decided to keep it simple. I made a minky blanket which was super easy and quick to put together. Minky is such a soft fabric, perfect for babies.
I bought just over one meter of Minky fabric at Spotlight and combined it with a Soft Cactus fabric from the shop. The beige colour matches the beige leaves in the fabric print really well, and this combination looks pretty unisex too I think.
So I cut the Minky fabric in half and straightened the edges. My super large cutting board really helped to get to a nice rectangular piece. The overall fabric width must have been about 160cm as I ended up with two sheets of 100cm by 75cm. This means I will be able to make a second Minky blanket from the one meter I bought.
Then I cut the same size in the woven cotton fabric. I placed the 2 pieces of fabric right sides together and stitched all around, except for a gap of about 15cm I left in the middle.
Lots of bloggers recommend that you use a walking foot to stitch minky fabric. I just used lots of pins and had no issues whatsoever. It did use a stretch needle.
Then I simply turned the blanket with the right sides out, through the opening. To close the opening, I top stitched about 7mm from the edge. This stitch line provides a nice finish and puts the two pieces nicely together, even though the two sheets of fabric or not attached anywhere in the middle.
Overall I am very happy with the result. I hope she and mystery baby number 2 love it too!
