How to Sew an Easy Self Binding Baby Blanket

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I recently discovered minky fabric. What a luxuriously soft and wonderful fabric this is! It’s perfect for babies. It’s so soft and plush. It’s a little slick to sew with but when combined with another fabric you can make the most lovely baby blankets. Baby blankets are meant to be cuddled with – so minky is the perfect fabric for that. I wanted an easy to sew blanket and found that making a self binding baby blanket was the way to go.

It seems like there is always someone around me having a baby. This spring, I know of 2 people who are expecting. One knows that she is having a boy and the other knows that she is having a girl. I typically like to crochet a baby blanket (and I still do), but I’ve been going through a sewing phase lately and so I decided to sew a blanket as well. This is not the first child for either expectant mother, but it is the first of the gender for both of them. In other words, the one expecting a boy already has a daughter, but this second child will be a boy. The one expecting a girl already has 2 boys so this is very exciting too.

Since it is the first of that gender for each of them, I decided to go with traditional colours – blue for the boy and pink for the girl.

Minky fabric, also known as cuddle fabric is very popular for babies. Years ago, it was really big for the quilting crowd and currently, it seems to be the fabric of choice for babies.

While luxurious to the feel, minky fabric is polyester and so it is machine washable. I love making things for new babies, but know that it needs to be practical. I don’t want mothers to be worried about these items or only save them or use them for special occasions. These items are meant to be used! Minky comes in a variety of colours – they tend to be pastels but I’ve found a couple of jewel tones in the fabric store. You can get plain/solid coloured Minky, as well as a textured type that has bubbles on it. There is also patterned Minky, but I find the patterns quite limited.

Sewing Tips for Minky

• Sewing with Minky can be somewhat challenging. The plush feel to it makes it very slippery.  I compared some Minky that I got recently to some older Minky a friend of mine had in her stash. The older Minky has a slippier backing to it, compared to my recent purchase. The manufacturer must have made a few improvements/changes. The Minky tends to shift so use lots of pins.
• A walking foot on your sewing machine, as well as a ton of pins help make working with Minky easier. Not everyone has one – I don’t and I was able to manage with my regular presser foot.
• Use a minimum of a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Because it’s so slick, you need to make sure you have at least 1/2 an inch.

So I wanted to make some baby blankets using Minky as a backing. For the front, I went through my own fabric stash and found some lovely craft cotton that would work. The fabric has a cute chick pattern on it and I had it both blue and pink. I’ve only used bits of it, so I had a decent-sized piece of both.

The fabric I had varied in size – I had more of the pink than I did of the blue. I tend to like to make baby blankets around 32-36 inches in size. I feel that is a good size – good for the stroller and good at home. It’s not too big and it’s not too small. I purchased plain, yellow Minky to use as the backing for both.

Since my cotton pieces were smaller than 36 inches, I decided to make self-binding baby blankets using the Minky. This is a good way to use a smaller piece of fabric and make it bigger by the binding, or the border. You could simply put the cotton and Minky, right sides together and cut so that both are the same size and then sew together. But then you tend to have those skinny little bits from the sides leftover. I tend to keep all those little scrap ends – like many, I’m of the mindset of “well, I could use it for something, one day” – but of course, I rarely do. So this way, I use up all the Minky and have very little waste.

Essentially, the Minky is bigger than the front cotton, so the Minky folds over on itself and shows in the front and makes a nice binding or border for the front fabric.

A quick internet search can give you exact dimensions and instructions, but since my fabric was an odd size, I needed to come up with my own method. Also, as mentioned, my cotton fabric was 2 different sizes and I wanted to make them work with little wastage.

I purchased 90-inch wide minky fabric, which when cut in half resulted in 2, 45 inch wide pieces. I used one for each of the blankets. I chose yellow because it goes with both fabrics.

Step by Step Instructions for Creating a Self Binding Baby Blanket

1. Lay your cotton fabric, face down on to the right side of the Minky fabric. Don’t forget that it’s right sides together. Centre your cotton on the Minky – remember that the Minky will be wider. Align it so that the bottom edges are together. Pin – use lots of pins.
   
   TIP: to make sure it’s even, I find the centre point of both and pin the centre first. Then I work my way out. Don’t forget to use lots of pins – did I say that already?? 
2. Sew the 2 together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Start 1/2 an inch in and end, leaving 1/2 an inch. So you are not sewing exactly end to end.
3. Lay out your fabric again and pin the opposite end. Again, centre it and pin it lots. Don’t forget – because the Minky is bigger, your cotton will be pulled forward.
4. Sew this seam the same way – with a 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving 1/2 inch at both ends. So now you have your 2 fabrics sewn together at opposite ends.
5. Lay out your fabric and pin one side. Again, since the Minky is bigger, it’ll fold over on to the fabric.
6. Sew this side the same way. You’ll end where you ended when sewing the other sides. It should meet and make a perfect corner.
7. Lay out your fabric and pin the last side.
   TIP:  use the same technique as the previous side, finding the centres and pinning from the centre out.
8. Sew this last side the same way but leave about an 8 inch opening in the centre. This is to help you flip it right side out. Don’t worry about the exact measurement – just make sure it’s not too small otherwise you’ll struggle with flipping it.
   TIP:  so that I remember to leave the opening, I mark where it starts and ends by putting my pins perpendicular
   When finished, you should have an opening on one end and you will have 2 floppy corners
9. Corners:  grasp the Minky fabric line up the seams. Using a clear, quilting ruler, line it up on the fold line and draw a line from the perfect corner you sewed and the end. Use a fabric marker, or even a pen (no one’s going to see it) to make a line. Sew along this line. Trim the 1/4 inch. Repeat for all 4 corners
   
   
10. Flip the blanket right side out. Lay it down and smooth it out so that the binding is even along all 4 sides.  This will take a bit of fussing. Once you have it, pin it all around. Pin the opening (where you flipped it right side out) closed with a half inch seam allowance. This makes those nice mitred corners!
11. Zig zag all the way around on top of the seam between the cotton and the Minky. This helps tack it down and keep the two pieces together. This will also close up that 8 inch opening that you used to flip it right side out.
    

There you have it – a cozy blanket with a Minky border. This technique works well with the cotton and would also be lovely using flannel. I found the Minky quite manageable to sew with as the slick side was always on the inside.

I can see why this fabric is so popular with babies – it’s so soft and cuddly. Where was this fabric when my kids were little???  I can’t wait to try other projects using Minky fabric. Stay tuned for that.

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