Children's Blankets

Khloe asked me to make her a blanket a few months back. So, I did...then she said, "Mommy, you should make one for my friends at school!" Thus, the idea was born to make these little tykes blankets for Christmas! Including her I had 16 to do...not too bad...until I realized with cutting, pinning, sewing, flipping, ironing, closing-in, and top stitching it would be roughly an hour per blanket! So, mid-October I started with asking the parents I knew what their kid liked and the ones I didn't get to ask I asked the teacher to ask the child. After I had the character/colors they liked, I went on the hunt...and when I say hunt, I mean hunt! It took me days to find some of these prints! I had no idea that Thomas the Train was considered "vintage" fabric!

After a few weeks of searching it was time to purchase. I made a Google documents with the children's names, their color, their character, order date, ship date, received date, and made date! I would NEVER remember who had what color or which princess fabric if I had not written it down...but you better believe Khloe remembered! I tried to get all different fabric so none of the kids had the exact same thing. With that said, there are about 3 Spiderman blankets, 4 princess blankets, and others but none are the same...only some have the same color on the back in minky fabric (so soft!).

I tried to find as many panels as I could so that I did not have to cut that fabric any more, but basically I put the character fabric (face down) on top of the minky fabric (face up) and matched the selvage edges to get a straight line. Some fabric I had to straighten up and then cut out. Each blanket is about 36'' x 44''. Once I got all of the fabric in I immediately washed it all! I wanted it to preshrink if it was going to before I cut it and I wanted to make sure the fabric I ordered was clean before I gave it to anyone! 

Naturally, I did Khloe's blanket first just in case I made any mistakes. In the beginning, I cut each blanket and sewed it one at a time. However, once I had 10 blankets left, I decided to go ahead and cut all of the fabric and then roll the two pieces of each together and set it aside until I had to sew it. It took me an hour and a half to cut all of the fabric for 10 blankets! Goodness, it was taking me an hour to do just one complete blanket before this point! After that, I could sew, iron, and finish a blanket in about 25 minutes...maybe I got better at cutting and faster at sewing! 

So, without further ado...here are the blankets! 

Below is the fabric after washing and ready for sewing! Laying there is doesn't look like much...

Here is Khloe's blanket. I put outside facing outside with the minky on the bottom. Then I pinned the fabric in place and sewed all the way around 3 sides and then almost to the end of the 4th side. 

Then, I flipped the blanket right side out through the hole and ironed the seams down to prepare for my top stitch. Below is the hole I flipped the fabric through. I had to finish it on top. 

 Here is my top stitch when I was done. It makes for a nice edge and helps to keep the fabric in place :)

And finally, here is my helper/model! She LOVES her blanket!

 Here are the last 10 blankets I had to do. I cut them all and then rolled them together to prepare for sewing. 

And...here are the other 15 blankets I did for her class!

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

  

  

 

 

 

I have 2 left at this point! I will upload them after tonight when I finish them. Their party is tomorrow and I want them to be done by then :)

Here they are, the last 2! I hope they have a great day today at their party and enjoy these blankets for years to come :)

 

 

Below I have all of the blankets ready to go to the kids! I have already given one blanket to a little girl because she moved this month, but here are the other 15!

Here's to the next project! Happy Sewing!

April