DIY Baby Blanket Using Minky Fabric ~ Easy, Thrifty Gift
I love to sew, but I am not very good at it so I don’t do it as often as I would like. I have wanted to try sewing with minky fabric for a while, but have been intimidated after hearing others say how difficult it was to sew with. I got a great deal on some heart minky fabric and decided that it was time to bite the bullet and give it a shot! I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it was to sew with!
I did plenty of research first and this is what I learned: if you are going to sew with minky you need to be patient and use tons of pins to hold it in place well. I also learned that it is stretchy and has a slippery texture so sewing slowly is key! Of course, using the tons of pins does help with that because you can’t go very fast between pins really. If you are going to attempt to sew with minky, just keep those things in mind.
For those of you who don’t know, minky is a soft, material that has little raised dots (or in this case hearts) all over it. It is so cuddly and you will see it on a lot of baby products.
To sew this blanket you will need a few things.
You will need:
1 1/2 yrds Minky fabric
1 1/2 yrds Coordinating fabric for the top of the blanket
thread
sewing machine
sewing scissors
Begin by laying your fabric down on top of each other and trimming so they are close to the same size. It is ok if it isn’t perfect, just get it as close as you can. You may want to do this on a carpeted surface as the carpet helps keep the fabric from sliding around.
Once your fabric is the same size, turn the layers with the right sides facing each other and pin all the way around. As I mentioned above, you will need a lot of pins. Pin about every inch at the furthest.
Now you are ready to sew! I used a zig zag stitch for extra security since I wasn’t sure yet how this was going to go with the minky. Sew almost all the way around the blanket leaving about 12 inches to turn it right side out. When you get all sewn, unpin your last section that you left for turning the fabric right side out and turn it right side out. Make sure that you push each corner so that it isn’t puckered in.
Once you have the sides all straightened you will want to sew the outside. Now, for your hole you have left from flipping, you will need to repin. I didn’t use pins or iron, but it would be a good idea if you are worried about keeping it straight. I started on one end and sewed up the hole first, continuing around the blanket with a zig zag stitch again. It went very quickly and just gave it a finished look. Try to keep your sewing even so that your stitches are the same all the way around. If you vary your speed too much than your stitches will be different widths.
And there you have it! A quick, gift perfect for a baby shower, or make one for yourself! That minky is so soft, I am thinking I would like to have one too! Not only is it cute, but it is actually very easy to use and sew with. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go!
We spent most the day at home today, nothing to exciting happened. Johann had fun playing with the kids. He even got baby Madilyn to give him some big smiles, which was absolutely adorable. In the evening our family went to our family friends house and rode horses for a few hours. He seemed to really enjoy it and was great about letting the kids ride along too.
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