Chevron Minky Baby Blanket

This is one of those blog posts that I had hoped to write before our sweet Deakin came, but our baby came so much earlier then hoped.  One of the things I wanted to do for our son was to sew a baby blanket for him.  And even though we knew we might not have him very long, we still wanted to make him a baby blanket.

I was putting off sewing this because I did not know what size to make it since Trisomy 18 babies are often small.  My original plan of making a 36" x 36" blanket changed when we found out we lost him at 28 weeks and he would be, maybe 2 lbs.  I had a few hours prior to being induced and so I set off to sew our dear son a soft little chevron minky baby blanket.  (The moral of the story is that this type of blanket is really quick to whip up.)

Thankfully I already had my fabric!  I found an AMAZING minky chevron fabric from the OnlineFabricStore and I just knew that this was the fabric I wanted to use for our sweet boy.

I decided to use the Blue and White Chevron Minky fabric on one side and a soft white flannel on the other side.  The OnlineFabricStore was kind enough to provide me with the fabric to make this blanket for our son.  Big huge thanks goes out to them!!

I laid both of my fabrics on my floor on top of each other and cut them out together.  Because our son was going to be so small, I had tons of fabric so I made one for him to be buried with, one to put with our keepsakes for him, and one for each of our children.  They call these their "Deakin blankets" because they know that Deakin has one just like it.

My final size was approximately: 18" x 18".  Our son was 1 lb 13 oz. so this ended up being the perfect size for him.

Once the fabric was cut, I put right sides together, pinned the fabrics together every 1" and sewed it almost all the way around, leaving an opening just big enough to flip the blanket right-side-out.

I trimmed the extra fabric at the corners and turned the blanket right-side-out.

Then I sewed along the open edge to be sure it was secure.

After that I simply stitched around the blanket again, approximately ⅝" in from the edge, to help hold the blanket together and the edges together.

And that's it!  With a blanket this small, I didn't feel like I needed to tack the blanket down anywhere, but if you are doing a large blanket I would consider either sewing around the blanket again approximately 4" in from the edges or tacking the blanket down in a few spots in the middle.  This just helps keep it looking a bit nicer and more finished.

And because minky isn't the easiest fabric to sew, especially when sewing it together with a non-stretchy fabric, here is my list of tips for you!

Tips For Sewing Minky Fabric

• prewash and dry your fabrics
• try not to let your minky fabric stretch when cutting
• pin your fabrics together, 1" apart (tedious I know, but it helps the minky to not stretch as much which is especially helpful if you are sewing it to a non-stretchy fabric or if you don't want it to bunch or gather)
• put the minky fabric on the bottom when sewing with your non-stretchy fabric on top

This blanket was so teeny tiny and so perfect for our son.  The fabric was just precious for our little boy and I loved being able to create something special for him.

Be sure to check out my newest favorite fabric store: the OnlineFabricStore HERE!  The fabric selection is amazing and so is the quality.  You can also order samples of the fabric which is fabulous and their customer service is amazing!

Here are all the posts in this series about our family's journey:

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