Ric-Rac Blanket

My daughter has begun to show some of her quirks, which is just fascinating to me.  She’s already growing into her own person.  It’s just amazing.

Well, one of them is that she likes to rub her blanket on her face when she’s tired.  Completely adorable… and it completely freaks me out to leave her alone in her bed with a big blanket.  I have been giving her a burp cloth, which has been doing the trick so far, but I wanted something prettier.

So I thought I’d make her a girly little security blanket.  Hey, if she’s going to develop a habit of dragging anything around with her, I’d prefer it be something I took pride in.

I normally make these baby blankets in a 36×44 size, but I wanted a nice small snuggly one, so I opted for 22 inches square.  I settled on that size calculating that one package of ric-rac is 90 inches, so I would need just one. 

Ric-Rac Baby Blanket

Time: 1 hour of prewashing and prep, but you can get this started before naptime. :)  1 hour of actual sewing.

Supplies

• basic sewing supplies
• 2 coordinating cotton prints/cotton flannel.  I do not recommend beginners sewing with both minky (or anything stretchy) AND ric-rac in the same project.  It can be done, but master one skill before adding the other. :)  I cut my cottons to 22″x22″, but feel free to make yours whatever size best suits your needs.
• jumbo ric-rac – one package is fine for 22×22, but do the math first.  Add all four of your sides together, and add about 4″ to that number to be on the safe side.

If your fabric comes out of the dryer wrinkly, you may want to iron it.  I didn’t, I just took a few extra minutes to smooth it out well.

Cut your front and backside pieces to your desired size.  Everything pictured here is of course 22x 22.  I cut my pieces together, so that I know they are exactly the same size.

I wanted rounded corners.  Not only do I like the look, but I find they are easier to work with ric-rac when they are rounded.  But it’s your choice!

To round the corners evenly, I have a bowl I like.  (This is when it’s helpful to craft in the kitchen.)

You can either trace along the edge, or what I do is just press down and give the bowl a twist, so that it makes a ring in my flannel, giving me a nice trim line to cut off:

Then, set your backside piece aside, and get out your ric-rac.

Start along one of the sides of your topside piece.  You don’t want to have to mess with overlapping the ends on a corner if you don’t have to.  You can pin if you like, but I don’t bother – just lay the ric-rac so that the center of it lines up with your seam allowance (I normally stitch 3/8 inch seams but use whatever you’re comfortable with).  Then stitch directly down the middle of your ric-rac, right onto the right side of your topside piece. 

Yes, it looks wrong.  I find that nearly everything I make looks wrong at some point, but {usually} turns out fine.

When you get to the point of overlapping your ends, make sure the ends point off the edge of your top piece.  This is hard to describe and hard to show you, but take a look:

You want those ends to be completely off the edge of your top piece.  So push them to the right, and stitch them down securely.

Now, lay your underside and top pieces together, with their right sides facing.

If you plan to add a label, it’s not too late! :)

Now, place your topside-piece up, so that you can follow along your ric-rac stitch line. 

Start along one of your sides, and backstitch, and when you get back to this side, leave a hole about 4-5″ for turning your blanket.  Backstitch again right before the hole.  This is SO much easier to turn on a side rather than on a corner.

My hole ended up a little small, I like to be able to get my whole hand in there.  But fortunately it still worked. :P

Now reach in (if you can) and pull it right-side-out. 

Find your hole and pin it shut.

Smooth the edges really well.  This is a step not to hurry, or your ric-rac won’t show as well as it can.  Iron everything out flat.  There’s no picture of this because I have to iron in my bathroom, and no one wants to see that. :P  Now topstitch close to the edge, first over your hole, and then all the way around your blanket.

That’s it, you’re done!  Now admire your handiwork, and then share it with a little cutie in your life!

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