Blanket Bindings

A few weeks ago, I posted about making my own gauze baby blankets, similar to the super trendy (and pricey) Aden and Anis blankets. I could have just hand sewn a simple rolled hem, but I forgot to bring it to the beach to sew during the long drive home. Before I was able to get it sewn, I saw these gorgeous blankets and decided to try a similar blanket binding.

I followed the tutorial on the Made blog for making custom bias tape, but got pretty confused. I was able to make it work and made 3 different bias tapes but I think it was different each time. Anyway, here is the tutorial I followed and here is the basic process.

First you take your fabric and cut one end at a 45 degree angle. I folded one edge over and cut on the fold. Bias refers to cutting the fabric so that the threads run diagonal instead of horizontal and vertical. It makes the bias tape able to bend a little. So that is why you need that first corner cut.

After that it got a little tricky. You see the two pieces if fabric together so that you have a long edge that can be cut in the bias. I think I did this differently each time but it still worked out.

Above you can see the new fabric piece and one strip that has been started for the bias tape.

You basically cut strips and sew them together until you have the correct amount of bias tape for your project. Then you can follow the directions for ironing the strips to become either single fold or double fold bias tape. There is a little tool that can make the ironing easier, but I didn't have that tool and I HATE following directions, so I improvised. I sewed the trim to one side of the blanket, then rolled it to the other side and tucked the raw edge under, top stitching to hold it together.

Here is the finished blanket.

And here it is swaddled around baby Joshua, who is waiting patiently to be released from the NICU.