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Apr 22, 2013

Handmade Receiving Blankets

This weekend was filled with two things - a baby shower and a basement clean out.  Which one would you rather see pictures of? I thought so.

My favourite cousin (technically my cousin's wife, but we're not that technical around here) is due in June, so her mom and sister threw her a baby shower this past Saturday. Yes, they did in fact pick the coldest day of the month. Near freezing temps here. Crazy, because it was 22 degrees (72 F) on Thursday. I'm going to have to get another closet so I can have winter & summer clothes available all the time, just in case.

For months I have been planning on making receiving blankets for her - you know, the ones made from cloth diapers and patterned flannel - but it was impossible to find cloth diapers anywhere. Unless I was willing to buy $100 worth from a diaper service. Not really in my budget. So instead I bought about 5 metres of white flannel and some assorted patterned flannel pieces from the fabric store. My idea was to sew them together with white on one side and a pattern on the other.

Handmade Receiving Blankets

The first thing I did was wash and dry all of the fabric so that it was pre-shrunk. There's nothing like the feel of fluffy flannel right out of the dryer. I may or may not have snuggled up to it for an extra minute or two. Be warned, if you are using fabric with raw edges it will fray in the dryer.

I estimated that each blanket should be about 26" x 30", but the printed fabric was only about 22" wide, so with the white flannel being 30" wide I decided to leave it uncut and wrap it around to the front to make a two inch white stripe down each side of the patterned piece. Does that make sense?

I cut the white flannel to 31" lengths, then matched up the patterned flannel and cut each one to the same length. I pinned the long side of one white and one patterned piece together with right sides facing in and sewed them together with about a 1/4 inch seam. I did the same with the other long side, so I would end up with a "tube" of material.

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

I then flattened it so that there were two inches of white on each side of the patterned piece and sewed the short ends together, leaving about three inches unsewn on one end so I could turn it right side out.

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

Once right side out, I ironed the blanket flat and sewed all around the four edges so that the blanket would stay flat, especially after washing. The hardest part was pinning and carefully sewing the small opening that I'd left before. You could also hand sew it closed first but I don't think it would look any different. And my hand sewing skills leave much to be desired.

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

I like that finished edge. It makes the blanket look a little more upscale. Once I got the hang of it, they were done in no time at all.

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

And now some gratuitous photos of me showing off the blankets. 

handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth
handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth
handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth
handmade receiving blanket - burp cloth

At the party, my cousin received some other handmade gifts as well. Here are some shots of just three of the quilts she received (from grandma, grandma, and great grandma).

handmade quilt
handmade quilt
handmade quilt

Are those amazing or what? That baby is a lucky little girl. 




~~~~~

I'm linking up here this week!




22 comments:

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

My grandma made me some receiving blankets for me when I was pregnant with my daughter. To this day (5 years later) we still have them and use them for various things. They were the best out of all the other blankets we got!

I also love that twinkle twinkle blanket!!!


Well done@

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

So sweet! Thanks for sharing at Give Me the Goods!


~Chelsea @ Married Filing Jointly

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

These are very cute, Barb. They look so incredibly soft too! Our Simply Create Link party is going on right now. I would love to have you link up, as I'm sure my followers would love to see what you created too. Hope to see you soon!

Melissa

redflycreations.com

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Hello Barb! I found you on Summer Breezes linky party. Love your baby receiving blankets with the white borders! You can't have enough receiving blankets for a new born. I'm your newest follower and I hope you will stop over and follow me back! Come check out my new grandson and his quilt!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

You mean people don't like basements as much as they like babies?! :) Great project, Barb! Thanks so much for joining us at last week's All my Bloggy Friends .... We look forward to seeing what you share this week!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

How fun! This could make baby shower gifts easy! Thank you for sharing at Crafty Thursday Obsessions. We will be featuring it this week. Hope you stop by again


Stacey Gluedtomycrafts.blogspot.com

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

I love this tutorial. I have pinned it. I'm going to make some for Charly. Thanks so much for sharing with Wednesday's Adorned From Above Blog Hop.
Have a great week.
Debi and Charly

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Hi,
Just wanted to BUZZ by and let you know this is one of the features at our party.
http://www.thebusybhive.blogspot.com/
Thanks for linking up with us,
The Busy Bee's.

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Hi Barb. I just started following you. Love your blog and this easy tutorial, which you did a great job on by the way. I just pinned it. You take great photos!!

Have a wonderful weekend...Tracy @
Cotton Pickin Cute

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thanks, Tracy - you're very sweet!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thanks for featuring me!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thank you! I hope you enjoy making (and using) them!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thanks for featuring me, Stacey!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thank you!

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

That's awesome that they've lasted so long! My aunt made that twinkle blanket - it is cute, isn't it?

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Those receiving blankets turned out so cute! I love the white trim.

We'd love for you to share your posts with our readers at our weekly Finished Friday Link-Up.

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Adorable and you know they will be loved and appreciated. Hope it is feeling a bit warmer where you are. :D
Have a great week and thanks for sharing.
p

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

I love the way these receiving blankets turned out! They look so much better than the cloth diapers with fabric sewn down the center. My sister is having a baby boy in November. I am definitely going to try this. Thanks for sharing!

Creatively on a Whim!

http://creativelyonawhim.blogspot.com/

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

Thank you so much! They were fun to make. And I think a new mom appreciates handmade items.

Barb @ Turtles and Tails said...

I like how yours are reversible, very nice.

Rian said...

Exhibitors can interact face-to-face with leads that wander past their booths and scan their badges to collect their information but lead gen happens very differently in a virtual environment. thanks for the follow up and event registration tool

kirandt said...
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