A new blankie

This one is a new replacement for my girl as she has outgrown her current one.

She picked out the front fabric with the disney princesses and I choose to use the minky dot fabric for the back. My girl insisted on having Pink so the minky is in the shade of light pink.

I didn't have enough of the princess fabric so I added 2 rows of bright pink fabric on top and bottom to make up the length. Added the princess motif for interest.  Her favorite now is Aurora so she gets to go on top. The other 3 princesses are at the bottom row.

It's nice and comfy. I'm glad she had a soft blankie to keep her warm. : )

Material
Princess printed fabric for the front [50" X 40"]
4 princesses motif [5" X 5"each]
2 pieces of contrasting color fabric [4.5" X 40" each]
Pink minky dot fabric for the back [50" X 40"]
Some 2" binding tape [4m]

Instruction

Top & Bottom Front Panel

1) I intend for my princess motif to appear about 12cm X 11.5cm on the blanket. But I cut the motif to be bigger so I've some allowance to work with.  Find another piece of fabric patch in the same color as the top panel.  The size should be slightly bigger than the princess motif fabric.  

2) Trace the square (12cm X 11.5cm) on the fabric patch.

3) Pin the square patch to the right side of the top panel so that it is centralised. To find the center point, just fold the panel into half. Sew along the traced square.

4) Cut out an X inside the sewn lines as show below. Snip close to edge at the 4 corners.

5) Flip the cut fabric to the wrong side of the panel through the cut-out. Press and top stitch all around. You can trim away the excess fabric. 

view from the wrong side of fabric

front view with top stitch 

6) Place the princess motif behind the window opening, adjust the alignment and pin. Sew around the window again to secure the motif to the window opening. You can skip the top stitching at step 5 and just have one row of stitch after you attach the princess motif if you like. I have 2 rows of stitch as I'm afraid the motif might shift inside the window.

7) Place the Top front panel to the top of the Main front panel, Right side facing and pin. Make sure the print are facing in the same direction.  

8) Sew with 1cm seam allowance.  Press the seam towards the top panel. Top stitch to hold seams together.

9) Do the same steps 3 - 8 for the bottom panel with the 3 windows. Just adjust the spacing between the windows to be equally spaced.

Your front blanket is now ready.

Assemble 

1) I bought my batting from Spotlight. First lay the front panel, right side face down, smooth out all wrinkles. Next lay the batting on top. Lastly, put the backing, right side face up, on top of the batting. Put lots of pins to secure as minky is very slippery and lots of pile too.  

It's abit work to pin the 3 layers together but I found this great tutorial here that explained better. Didn't find this before I finish my project so maybe next time I'll do this.

batting, all lay out on top of the front panel (beneath)

2) Using the biggest stitch on my machine and increase the tension slightly, I baste the 3 layers together to help me bind them together later.

3) I've used a store bought double fold bias tape (1") in light pink for this project to save me some time.  Start from the middle bottom of the blank and align the bias tape to edge of the blanket.  Pin all around.

4) Here's how I make the neat mitted corner.  

a) Sew the bias tape as normal along the fold line closer to the edge but short around 0.5" before the end.  How far you stop sewing depend on the width of your bias tape. Mine is 1" wide double fold bias tape so the finished width is 0.5" on one side. 

b) Next, flip the bias tape up so that it form a right angle. Use a ruler to guide you.

c) Put the ruler align to the top edge and flip the bias tape down. Your bias tape should be align to the other side of the blanket.

d) Start sewing right from the top fold line which is nearer to the edge and continue sewing till you reach the next corner and stop sewing about 0.5" before the end. Do it for the 4 corners.

5) When I fold over the bias tape, I hand stitch them slowly so that the thread will not show through the front panel. I also slip stitch the mitted corner.

see the neat mitted corner? 

6) To ensure that the batting don't move between the layers after sewing, I did small cross stitches on alternate diamond print on the front panel.  As I've used the minky as the backing, I didn't want to quilt it to spoilt the texture.

Time to enjoy the blanket : )

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