18 January 2010

Little Miss Swaddle

Do you remember these books? From what I can tell, most people from my generation (and the generation before - GenX) will remember them.

Corey had a set of the Little Man, Little Miss books when he was young. His mom passed them down to us for our baby. We've been reading them to the baby every-so-often and have found them to be very funny and cute. So far my favorite is Little Miss Sunshine ... but we have many more to go, so that could change.

Anyway, I was shopping at Joann's Fabric Store yesterday and found a brand new cart of fabric fresh from the back room. The bolts were still wrapped in plastic! I spotted the "Mr. Men" and "Little Miss" character fabric and knew I had to have some. Besides, there is something very cool about getting the first cut. Maybe it's a fabric nerd thing?

I'm not normally a character fabric type of gal, but these were just too special to pass up. Joanns had both the pink/girl and blue/boy versions, in flannel, and cotton sheeting. I decided a pink flannel swaddling blanket would be a good project.

I've done a fair amount of research on swaddling and have found that bigger is better (at least 30 inches, square) and thick blankets don't seem to work as well (the baby can get too warm). So I decided on a single-layer 40-inch (approx.) swaddler.

DSC_5924_2

Here's a mini tutorial for this swaddling blanket:
- I wanted a square blanket, without any waste, so I got a piece of fabric cut that matched the width of the fabric. In this case, the fabric was 42 inches wide, so I got 42 inches of fabric cut (roughly 1 and 1/8 yards).
- Cut off the selvage ends.
- Iron all four sides under 1/4 inch.
- Iron under another 1/4 inch, hiding the raw seams, be sure to iron the corners well.
- Sew 1/8 inch from folded edge, around all four sides.
- Wash (with baby-safe detergent) and enjoy.

If you haven't worked with flannel before, they wash up well, so be prepared for an increase in fluffiness and softness (and a bit of shrinking).

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