Tutorial: 90-Minute Mitered Blanket

Here's an easy baby gift to sew in just a bit of time and for around $10 or less. My mom and I made some of them while she was here helping me with Baby #2 last year. The instructions were a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a hand drawing, so I made it into a step-by-step tutorial for you. For all of you swaddlers out there, have you noticed how difficult it is to find a SQUARE blanket? This one ends up 34" square. I've only used flannel so far, but since summer's coming up, you could make it out of lightweight cotton. A breezy seersucker would be cute too!

Materials:

• 1.25 yards main fabric (the puppy fabric in my photos and referred to as the BACK fabric in the instructions)
• 1 yard coordinating fabric (the polka dot fabric in my photos and referred to as the FRONT fabric in the instructions)
• sewing machine and coordinating thread

1. Cut the main BACK fabric into a 40" square. Cut the coordinating FRONT fabric into a 30" square. Mark the centers of each of the four sides of EACH fabric square (mine are marked with pins in the photo).
2. With right sides of the front and back fabrics together, match the center points and pin edges together. There will be 5" of the back fabric extending beyond the front fabric.

3. Starting at the center mark, sew a 1/4" seam allowance and STOP your needle when you get 1/4" from the end of the front fabric and make a backstitch to secure. Go back to the center mark and stitch to the other end, again stopping 1/4" from the end of the front fabric. Repeat on all four sides, leaving a 4" opening on one side to turn the blanket right-side-out.

It will look like this with "ears" on each corner:

4. Now, fold the blanket so that two stitched sides line up, your STOP points match up, and the corner of the back fabric comes to a point (You'll see an extra seam in my photo that you can ignore. I had to do a little piecing to get my 40" square since I was using a piece of fabric in my stash that wasn't quite big enough).

5. When all is matched up and it's lying flat, draw a perpendicular line from the stop point to the angled fold, like so.

6. Pin in place and sew along the line you just drew. (My STOP point is shown as a red dot here.)

7. Trim off the point to a 1/4" seam allowance. Repeat on all four corners.

8. Reach through the opening and turn blanket right-side-out and poke out corners with a dull pencil so as not to poke a hole through the corner. Press flat, and this creates a frame of about 2.5" around the front fabric. Use a zig-zag or other decorative stitch and "straddle" stitch the seam to hold it in place. This will close up the opening too.

9. You're done! You'll have a little leftover fabric, so you can sew some strips together to whip up a little coordinating burp cloth for a super cute gift combo.

I hope you'll try this, and let me know how it goes. This is a great blanket to take anywhere and is soft for baby to lay on and play. And if you make it with flannel, it's basically a giant burp cloth and spit-up catcher for those tummy times right after a meal, KWIM? It lasts through many washes and gets softer and softer with each one!