Typically sewing is something I save for winter, but since we had a rather gray rainy week last week, I took on a project that has been waiting for a few months. Shortly after baby E was born, we were in my favorite store, Walmart, and I told the boys they could pick out a gift for her. Although the Thomas the Train blanket was much more tempting, they finally decided on this Care Bear one because L said, "because pink is for durls (girls)". They were thrilled each time we used it, but it had one major drawback. A nice silky back which made it slide off the carseat while it should have been covering her, and if I was holding her with it she was like holding onto a wet bar of soap. Something had to be done, or else we'd never use it again. I looked around for some flannel to match, but found nothing I liked that matched it. Then, while back at Walmart I noticed that the blanket had matching receiving blankets that went with it. Great, except they were too small (a good 10 inches too small on one side, the other side was fine). I shopped online, found nothing...so went back and got the receiving blankets. I then pieced them together matching to make them big enough for the back, and then hemmed the edges. The blanket looked good but something was missing. That nice silky edge. Babies love that. So, I went to the fabric store to get some thick ribbon to trim it with, only to realize that ribbon doesn't nicely go around curved corners which this blanket had 4 of. That could be trickier than my sewing skills allowed. So, I called my sister-in-law who sews a lot, to see what she recommended, and she thought making a bias tape out of the satin back would probably be the best bet for the corners (and would use up the satin, which I likely wouldn't use for anything else). Out came my rusty math skills, so I could figure out the yardage, and then figure how many strips and how wide I would need of the satin cut diagonally. I cut strips, sewed them together, ironed them into bias tape and sewed on one side. I tried sewing the other side, but was unable to get a neat top stitch since the fabric was so slippery. I decided to just stitch it by hand from the inside, and that worked great. It took a bit longer, but the blanket turned out just as I had hoped, and we use it all the time now. The boys are still proud when we use it, and E loves sucking on the silky edge. Whew. I'm not much of a sewer, but am glad it turned out.
