When all children were babies, I made each of them a blanket or quilt. They were very simple and done in the wee hours of the night, a labor of love. Most of the time, they used them as little kids and then they were safely stored away in a Baby Box.
My youngest daughter was the exception, she used her blanket from the time she was a little girl until she was an adult. It traveled to many sleepovers and volleyball tournaments.
On weekend when she came home from college, she asked me if I could “fix” her blanket. The well-loved blanket was almost beyond repair. What to do? I went to a quilt shop and asked them and they said one option would be just to place this blanket inside a new one, using it for padding. But I wanted to use as much of the original blanket as possible when I repaired it.
I decided to use the original front and back fabric and cut out blocks from each. This gave me enough blocks for the front of the blanket, then I purchased a coordinating flannel fabric to use for the back.
Because the original fabric was showing some wear, I backed each of the quilt blocks with the fusible Easy Knit interfacing. This way the fabric maintained its softness, but was reinforced to make it last longer.
When using fusible interfacing, read the directions carefully to make certain that you create a strong bond with the fabric.
All of the blocks were backed with the Easy Knit interfacing.
Then I arranged the blocks the way I wanted to sew them together. Our ping pong table worked great for this!
The original blanket had eyelet lace bordering the edges, but I decided to use a fabric border this time.
I stitched all the blocks together, stitched the border around the edge and pressed all the seams smooth.
I added a layer of batting to the flannel fabric that I used for the back side of the blanket. Then I stitched the front to the back (leaving a hole just large enough to turn the blanket inside out later), stitching all around the edges twice for more durability, then trimming the corners and seam allowances.
Turn the blanket right-side out. Hand-stitch together the opening used to turn the blanket.To keep the batting in place, I used the machine to zigzag a few stitches on top of each other about every foot on the blanket, then stitched a bow on top of that stitching.
Ready for another twenty years of good memories! Make sure you always sign your name and date on your keepsakes! Now to get ready to start making blankets for the next generation! Enjoy!!!
