baby blankets times two

Way back in August my friend's twin daughters had a 'virtual baby shower' with family and friends.  One was due in August with a girl, the other due in November with a boy.  I was a few weeks late, but I wanted to make and send something to them.

I had bookmarked two different 'self binding receiving blankets' (everyday mom version, piece n quilt version) and this was the opportunity to make them.  I pulled out a very boy 'dog' print from my stash and found the perfect blue flannel with brown and white dots for the back.

My first try was a colossal failure.  Both are very straight forward tutorials, but I was very confused on how to mark the corners, what seam to sew, and what to cut.  No, that's not quite right.  I was convinced I knew exactly what I was doing, marked the corners, trimmed them, turned it right side out - and the corners were very, very wrong.   I had placed my ruler on the wrong edge and drawn my sewing line in the very, very wrong place.  (Note to self - line the ruler up on the folded edge.  And don't trim corners until you turn it right side out and check it.)  There was no way to 'patch' in fabric to fix it.  Luckily JoAnns still had some more dot fabric, so I took it apart and tried again.  (On the positive side, I now have blue dot fabric to make burp cloths with.)

I think they turned out great - and I'll make them again. The rule of thumb for the fabric is that the back fabric needs to be 10" wider and longer than the front piece.  I think they're just a bit fancier than two pieces of flannel sewed together and it's not hard to do at all.  Just don't trim the corners until you are positive you sewed the right line!