Sewing for baby: Handmade blankie

I noticed that four-month-old Etta was showing signs of wanting some sort of blankie. (I guess they call them “loveys” now? That term is so weird to me.) She was snuggling with burp cloths, and I thought we could do better than that. She needed a blankie and what better blankie than one your mama makes for you.

I’ve been itching to make another quilt lately, but time has been tight. So this simple sewing project certainly scratched that itch. I hadn’t sewn anything since December, which meant I hadn’t really played with my fabric stash since then either. Please no one let me buy any more fabric. It’s bad, you guys. But that also means I was able to do this project start to finish with what I already had on hand.

I had a remnant of pink minky fabric that was just under 15 inches wide, so I used that to determine my dimensions. I layered it with a pretty cotton print and a layer of flannel in the middle to give it some weight. (I thought batting might be too bulky.)

I cut three rectangles, sandwiched them together and bound the edges using a solid gray cotton. I probably would have used store bought bias tape to save some time if I hadn’t been trying to whittle down my stash. The finished product ended up being about 18″ x 14.5″, which turns out to be the perfect size for grasping and chewing and rubbing on your face.

All in, it took two hours start to finish. Looking back that’s sort of hard to believe it took even that long, so perhaps I’m out of practice. Or tired. Or both. These two are certainly keeping me busy.