Remnant Rehab: Baby blanket — bingo!

Inspired by a baby registry item, a hooded blanket is easy to make for a shower gift.

Everyone is having babies right now — or so it seems every time I log in to Facebook.

With a baby shower coming up, I checked out the future parents’ registry to see what they were looking for. When I saw the blankets with the little hood in the corner, I figured I could make one.

It was pretty simple. I happened to have a yard of cute flannel and two coordinating fabric options in my stash.

The most amazing part was that the fabric was fitting for a baby boy — I’ve made several trips to the fabric store recently and had a hard time picking out baby boy-appropriate motifs. At first I thought it was just my affinity for girly colors and patterns, but after the third trip, I realized it is legitimately hard to find a cute fabric for baby boys. Plaid is too mature, and the majority of fun kid prints have pink in them.

Personally, I’m not opposed to pink for all, but I wasn’t sure how the gift recipients would feel about it.

Supplies

  • 3/4 yard flannel
  • 3/4 yard coordinating lightweight cotton
  • ruler
  • marking tool, optional
  • scissors
  • plate or other rounded object
  • pins
  • iron
  • coordinating fabric
  • sewing machine

Instructions

  1. Measure and cut pieces 27 inches by 34 inches from the flannel and cotton fabrics. If you’re using 44-inch-wide fabric (which is standard), you should have a 10-inch-wide strip of each left over. Measure up the long edge 10 inches from the bottom and mark. Make a triangle from here to the opposite bottom corner with the ruler. You should have a triangle with two 10-inch sides. Cut one triangle from each fabric or two from the flannel for the hood.

  2. It seems all baby blankets have rounded corners — you don’t want babies to hurt themselves on sharp corners. Here’s how to round them: Fold the large flannel piece in quarters. Line up the plate, upside-down, with the edges of the fabric at the open corner and mark along the rim of the plate. Cut along the marking. Repeat for the cotton fabric. On the triangles for the hood, do the same on the corner across from the longest side.

  3. Lay the triangles right sides together and pin. Sew along the long side of the triangle, using a 1/2-inch seam. Press the seam apart, then fold the triangles wrong sides together and press.

  4. Lay the flannel and cotton large pieces right sides together. Stick the triangle piece between the two layers, aligned with a corner. It doesn’t matter which corner unless you have a directional fabric with an obvious top and bottom. Have the flannel side of the hood face the flannel side of the blanket. Pin the pieces together.

  5. You’ll leave a turning hole, about 4 inches wide, on the short edge of the blanket opposite the hood. Start sewing from the edge of the turning hole all the way around the blanket with a 1/2-inch seam allowance, backstitching at each end.

  6. Clip the rounded corners, without cutting through the stitching, so they lay flat. Turn the blanket right-side out through the turning hole and press.

  7. Topstitch all around the edges of the blanket with a 1/4-inch seam, which will close the turning hole. Press.

Your blanket is ready for keeping a baby warm, cuddly and cute — as if babies needed any help with that.