My third small finish for the week - another self-binding baby blanket. This one is for a coworker with a baby boy due in a couple of weeks.
If you haven't tried making one of these yet, do consider it. These make such wonderful and quick baby gifts. Whoever came up with this technique is a genius!! There are a ton of tutorials online and you can just search for "self-binding baby blanket". They take 2 pieces of flannel and about an hour including cutting time.
My back piece is 10" larger than my front piece because it folds around to the front and makes the binding. I buy 1.25 yards of the back and then cut the square as large as I can. Then I measure that and cut the other piece 10" smaller.
The only thing a little tricky is making sure your corners are stitched at the correct angle. I actually printed off my favorite tutorial and it is in the drawer that holds my flannel stash so I can refer to it each time just to be sure. I've made a LOT of these over the past few years and it is my "go to" baby gift, along with a hand made burp cloth. I always have a little stash of coordinating flannels in my stash in girl colors, boy color, and gender neutral colors so that I can whip one of these up anytime I need a quick gift.
It's adorable!
ReplyDeleteJust curious - since flannel is notorious for shrinking, do you wash them before gifting and do you do any "quilting" to control the shrink?