I adore the organic cotton fleece from Michael Miller that I used to make this blanket. It's cozier than you can imagine and so natural in both look and feel. You'll love putting it next to your child's skin. I chose a cheery, lemon yellow shot cotton for the back with tan rick rack for the edge to create a warm, gender neutral palette that everyone will love. --Page
This blanket is a 32-inch square when finished.
Pre wash, dry and iron both fabrics.
Cut the shot cotton to a 32-inch square. Cut the fleece to a 31 3/4-inch square (it is smaller than the shot cotton to allow you to see where you are placing the rick rack in the step below). If you need help with this step, please see our Rotary Cutting tutorial.
In order to sew the rick rack inside the seam you must carefully line up the rick rack between the fleece and the cotton. To do this, place the shot cotton on a surface with the right side facing up. Place the rick rack around edge of the cotton with the tips of the rick rack lining up exactly with the edge of the cotton.
See how we've turned the corner with the Rick Rack which makes a neat edge once turned right side out.
Place the fleece on top of the cotton and the rick rack with the right side facing down. Since you have cut the fleece smaller than the cotton, it will expose 1/8-inch of the shot cotton and rick rack on all 4 sides so you can make sure everything is still lined up before sewing.
Pin the cotton, rick rack and fleece together every 3 rick rack tips. In my opinion you can never use too many pins when doing this kind of technique! Another note: I learned to put the pin heads to the left of the sewing machine foot, but its perfectly correct to place them to the right as well.
Make sure you remember to put the walking foot on your machine at this point since the fleece is knit and will stretch and gather without it. The walking foot works wonders!
Now sew a 1/4-inch seam using a basic straight stitch. The goal is for the seam to go exactly down the middle of the rick rack so half is exposed when you turn it right side out.
You will need to leave an opening of approximately 6-inches to turn the blanket right side out. Make sure you back stitch on both sides of the opening to make this area strong when turning right side out.
Snip the corners before turning right side out to avoid bulky, messy looking corners.
Turn blanket right side out. Push out the corners with your finger so that they aren't too blunt.
At the 6-inch opening, fold both fleece and cotton under to create a 1/4-inch hem, tuck the rick rack into place. Iron the hems so they stay put. At the same time, iron the entire blanket so that the edges are crisp to prepare for top stitching (which makes the rick rack stand out more)
Pin the fleece, rick rack and cotton together. 
Sew with the fleece side facing up, and top stitch around all 4 sides. Remember to thread the machine with natural color thread to match the fleece on top and have yellow thread in the bobbin to match the cotton side underneath. I recommend top stitching approximately 1/4-inch in from the edge. When you reach the 6-inch opening that you left to turn the project right side out, top stitch approximately 1/8-inch from the edge so that you are catching the rick rack as you go along. ( I recommend just gradually decreasing the top stitch distance from the edge as you get closer to the opening and then gradually increase the distance after you pass the opening.)
Iron the entire blanket and it's good to go. Enjoy!
Monday, June 23, 2008