As I mentioned last week, I’m really working on my sewing skills. Not only is it helpful and productive, but it’s also fun, frustrating, and rewarding to work on a new type of crafting skill. My most recent project was this blanket. It should probably have taken 1-2hrs maximum, but it took me about 4 1/2 hours start-finish… and I still have 2 seams to rip and re-do. Ah well, a lot of good learning happened here!
Ok so first I layed out the fabrics (1 yard fleece + 1 yard care bares) on the dining room table. Then I measured the care bears since it was smaller and found (miracle of miracles!) that it is EXACTLY even. 36″ across all the way. I didn’t measure the fabric width because I figured there’s no human error there. And I’m the lazy sewer- remember?
So I put a bunch of pins in to hold stuff together flat and even, then trimmed off all the excess fleece.
(Note the ‘helper’ in background) Next I put the satin binding (ribbon?) around. Here’s where my simple project got tricky on me. First off, I was THRILLED to discover this stuff is already folded in 1/2 so that when you put it around you don’t have to iron the seam yourself. It’s done! WOO HOO!
However, I hadn’t thought about what I was going to do about corners…
I inspected the girls blankets that they have, and found that the corners seem to be folded under to create a mitered seam look. I was pretty sure I could pull this off without too much trouble.
Except I wasn’t careful enough on measuring length of satin vs length of blanket. Ok. I didn’t measure at all. SOOOO… I ran out. I took a scrap and covered that icky spot, but lesson learned.
Blanket all pinned up and ready for machine. (gulp)
The machine part was HARD, and there are no photos as I was SOOO not in the mood because of issues. I try to never change the bobbin thread because it hates me. (really) So having to change out for pink thread sent me into panic mode. It was justified too- the bobbin thread was all crazy loose/not right after the 3rd side. Panic set in, I got out Matilda’s manual, and it took me 2 hours (no not kidding, stop laughing at me!!!) to get it right. Well… it still wasn’t just right so I switched to a zig-zag stitch and then I was fine to finish it up. PHEW! Oh, photo shows the corner (almost) finished. I’m cool with the folded corner like this.
I did two corners like this (how they are in my grandma’s quilts, actually) and I don’t like it as much. Not as easy somehow, and not as good looking I think. But I’m all about the learning and experimenting, that’s why I did it!
So there it is. All crumpled up and in full use. The blanket was intended for Rebecca but Elizabeth has taken a fancy to it (and care bears in general) so guess who uses it. I was only allowed to take a photo of it if SHE could arrange it, hence the crumpled up look.
Am I still a terrible sewer? Yes ma’am! Will I do another blanket? YES! But first I have some other projects in mind, and I need some interfacing (thanks for the tip Lisa!) before I start them. More adventures in crafting to come!
