Tumbler Stripe Blanket Tutorial

My four-year-old daughter has a little white blanket that she sleeps with every night. She calls it her "soft side/cool side blanket"... one side is satin and the other is minky. It was a baby gift from one of my students back when I was still teaching. My nineteen-month-old daughter has recently started sleeping with a blanket, but I've just been using flannel receiving blankets. I decided that she needs a special little blanket to sleep with, and my oldest thought it should be a "soft side/cool side" blanket like hers. I started thinking about what I wanted the blanket to look like right around the time that AccuQuilt contacted me about reviewing their GO! Baby Fabric Cutter (if you missed my review yesterday, check it out HERE). This is what I came up with...

I love this blanket. I think I mostly love it because my youngest took to it right away and loves it, too. She particularly likes the owls and the apples. This is so simple to make, especially if you have a GO! Baby, but you could cut the tumblers by hand as well. The front  (or cool side) is cotton, and the back (or soft side) is textured white minky. The finished blanket is about 36" by 34".

This blanket is a quick sew for a baby gift and makes a nice little toddler blanket, too. Know someone who would like one? Here's the how-to...

Materials:

• 1 yd main fabric for blanket front
• 3.75" square fabric scraps for tumblers, need 17
• 1 yd of minky
• thread
• GO! Baby Fabric Cutter
• 3.5" Tumbler AccuQuilt GO! Die
• iron
• rotary cutter or scissors
• ruler

Instructions:

Step 1: Once you have all of your fabric scraps, think about how you want to arrange them. If you are using fabric with a print that goes in a particular direction, this will determine whether or not you cut your tumbler for that piece with the widest part at the top or the bottom. For example, I needed to know where I was placing my owl fabric and my apple fabric so I knew which way to place them on the GO! die... I didn't want them to be upside down on the blanket. Once you have your fabric arranged to your liking, either write down how you had the fabric arranged or take a picture (which is what I do), so you don't forget how it's supposed to go together. Now cut all of your tumbler shapes from your fabric. You need 15 tumblers and 2 half tumblers for the ends. This goes quickly with the GO! Baby.

The 3.5" tumbler die cuts three tumblers at a time.

Couple that with the fact that I could also cut four layers of fabric at once, and I was done very quickly... I only needed to roll the die through twice. To make the half tumblers, I used the GO! Baby to cut full-sized tumblers and then cut them in half vertically with a rotary cutter and ruler.

Step 2: Take all of your tumblers and lay them out in the order that you want the tumbler stripe on your blanket. This is when that picture you took in Step 1 comes in  handy :) Your half tumblers will go on either end of the row.

Take your first half tumbler all the way on the left, and flip it over onto the tumbler to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up. The GO! Baby tumbler die has dog-eared corners to make lining up the pieces super easy.

Now take the next tumbler and flip it over onto the tumbler to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up. Continue down the entire length of the row. Your half tumbler at the right end of the row can be set aside for now.

Step 3: Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew along the lined up edge of each pair of tumblers.

Don't cut the thread after sewing each pair together... just continue sewing (chain stitching) the next pair one right after another. This saves a lot of time. When you are done, you will have a chain of tumbler pairs that are stitched together.

Now you can go back and snip the threads in between each pair of tumblers.

Step 4: Take your tumbler pairs and lay them in a row in the proper order again.

Take the pair all the way on the left end of the row and flip it over onto the tumbler pair to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up.

Now take the next tumbler pair and flip it over onto the tumbler pair to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up. Continue down the entire length of the row.

Step 5: Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew along the lined up edge of each set of four tumblers, chain stitching as you did in Step 3. When you are done, you will have a chain of sets of four tumblers that are stitched together. Snip the threads in between each set of tumblers.

Step 6: Take your sets of four tumblers and lay them in a row in the proper order again.

Take the set all the way on the left end of the row and flip it over onto the set of tumblers to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up.

Now take the next tumbler set and flip it over onto the tumbler set to the right of it so that right sides are facing and the edges on the left side line up.

Step 7: Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew along the lined up edge of each set of eight tumblers, chain stitching as you go. When you are done, you will have two sets of eight tumblers that are stitched together. Snip the threads in between each set of tumblers. Lay the row of tumblers out in order again. I'm sure you get the idea by now... flip the set of eight tumblers on the left onto the set of tumblers to the right of it. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew along the lined up edge of the sets of tumblers. Finally sew the final half tumbler on the right end of the row onto the rest of the tumblers to complete the tumbler stripe for your blanket. When you are done, press all of the seams open.

Step 8: Measure the length of your tumbler strip. This will ensure that you cut the main fabric for the front of your blanket to the proper size. You will need two pieces of your main fabric. The first piece will be 7" tall by the length of your tumbler strip. The second piece will be 25" tall by the length of your tumbler strip. Take your tumbler strip and lay it out in front of you. Take the larger of the two pieces of main fabric and place it above the tumbler strip. Take the small piece and place it below the tumbler strip.

Take your tumbler strip and flip it down onto the small piece of the main fabric with right sides together and the edges on the top lined up.

Sew together using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 9: Take your piece from Step 8 and lay it out below the larger piece of your main fabric again.

Flip the tumbler/main fabric piece from Step 8 up onto the larger piece of the main fabric with right sides together and the edges on the bottom lined up.

Sew together using a 1/4" seam allowance. Press both seams toward the main fabric.

Topstitch 1/8" above and 1/8" below the tumbler stripe on your blanket.

The front of your blanket is done!

Step 10: Lay your minky out right side up. Place your blanket front right side down on top of the minky. Smooth everything out.

If you have never worked with minky before, this website has some great tips. You are now going to pin the blanket front to the minky all the way around. Minky is stretchy, so it can be tricky to work with. That's why I didn't cut my minky to size until after I pinned the blanket front onto it. Just keep smoothing as you go, being careful not to stretch it. Pin every 1" to 1.5". Once the blanket front is pinned in place, carefully cut your minky to the edges of the blanket front.

Sew around the outside edges of the blanket using a 1/2" seam allowance. Leave a 4" to 5" opening in one side for turning. Clip your corners and turn the blanket right side out. Press the entire blanket, paying close attention to the edges and tucking in the raw edges of the opening. DO NOT iron directly on the minky and use as low a heat setting as possible. If you are using textured minky, pressing can remove the texture (I have evidence :) Pin the opening shut.

Sew around the blanket about 1/4" from the edges, closing up the opening as you do so.

Carefully press the entire blanket. You now have a sweet little blanket for a special little one.

I love this little blanket so much. This will definitely keep my little girl warm and happy this fall and winter.

Thanks for stopping by today. I have a whole lot of comments and emails and blogs to catch up on this week. Hope you have a great one!




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