Welcome to SewVeryEasy, my name is Laura. Self-binding baby blankets are a lot of fun to make, they're quick and they're easy, They're 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 fast if you use a fabric that does not fray. That way, you don't have to worry about finishing any edges. A self-binding blanket refers to the back fabric being wrapped around to the front, making the binding. I'm going to be referring to this pattern from Shannon Fabrics. It's a free downloadable pattern. I'll put a link in the description for you. I'm going to be changing this. I'm going to change the fabrics and I'm going to change the size, but the technique is going to be the same way. I'm going to use two fabrics and both of them are Cuddle fabric from Shannon Fabrics. This is going to be the background, which means this is going to be that binding coming along up at the top. This will be the top fabric. I would recommend with whatever fabric you're going to use to wash the fabric and dry it first. That way you have no chance of the fabrics being different after they've been washed and dried. I would recommend using a 90/14 stretch knit needle. I'm going to make this blanket in a miniature size. That way it'll be easier for you to see in the camera and I'll be able to refer to the bigger one as we go along. The back fabric, which will be the binding, is going to be this dark blue. This is the fabric that's going to be pulled over to the front. The front fabric will be just this little piece of white. The technique is this back fabric gets wrapped around to the front. It covers the raw edges of that top fabric, so we definitely need that background fabric a lot bigger than we need the top fabric. Because this Cuddle fabric does not fray, I won't have to do a seam allowance or a rolled seam. I'm going to be able to just move that over and stitch that down and not worry about any seams raveling. The difference of the size is going to be something that you can choose on your own. As we go along you're going to be able to see the differences. A good size to start with is 2" bigger all the way around. Once we know that the center piece is going to fit inside we need to do those mitered corners. You can take this piece and secure it on and leave it there, or you can take it off and put it on after. I'm going to leave it on to start with so that we can see how the sides are going to look as we go along. If I'm going to have a 2" binding I'm going to need some 2" line markings. If I'm going to have the binding at 1½", I'm going to need 1½" marks. I'm going to use 1½" for this miniature one and 2" for the larger one. To mark on this dark fabric I'm going to use a piece of soap. This is just regular hand soap. I like it to mark on dark fabric. I have shaved the edge to a nice skinny sharp edge. I'm going to mark 1½" along the edge . You can mark the entire edge or just the corners. I'm going to do two edges marked all the way and one with just the corner marks so you can see the difference. So I have 1½", and another 1½", and for this side I'm just going to do the corners. I've marked the edges on the wrong side of the fabric, so I have the good side facing down, and the good side of the main fabric facing up. This can be attached on or it can be taken off and put on afterwards. You can see where I need a little bit of space around that perimeter. That 1½" mark is where that's going to be folded over. You don't want any of this top piece in that seam allowance because it'll be too bulky in the corner. I'm just going to leave this on as a reference. On each corner we need to draw a 45° angle. The angle is going to go right through this intersection. A ruler with a 45° mark is very handy. That 45° mark can go on one of the lines or it can go on the edge. If you want it to match up along that drawn line, you just need to have your 45° along that line and the ruler edge right at that corner. Then you're going to be able to draw your mark. You can also have that 45° mark on the edge and I can draw my line. I need to do this to all four corners. You have two choices for the center piece. The center piece can stay on but you will need to secure it on because you'll be picking this up and moving it to the machine, so it will shift if it's not secured on. I prefer to have it off and put it on later. We need to sew that 45° inch mark that we put on. I want to take both of these edges and match them up together, right sides facing. I'm going to be folding this so both those edges touch. I have that corner; just fold it in half. It's not important now what the other corners are doing; we're just going to work on one corner at a time. We just need that edge of that fabric matching up. Right there is that intersection that you drew through. You have that first square line and you have the 45° line. We need to stitch on top of that 45° line. Because this fabric is a little bit slippery it's good that you pin it and use a walking foot. Start at the edge of the fabric, backstitch, stitch all the way right through to that point, and backstitch there so you can secure it. I've used white threads so that you can see it, but by all means use what's matching your fabric. Once this area has been stitched we can trim off this point. You're going to need to leave a little bit of a seam allowance. I like to leave about ½". The next area to trim off is this little folded point. You already have a line that's going to be a good guide. You do not want to trim into that top seam. You just want to trim off this folded tip. If you happen to cut the threads, it's fine. Just do another stitch to secure that. Now when this is going to be opened up, that corner piece is not going to be in the way. Repeat this on all four corners. With those four corners done it's already taking shape. You can see how by trimming off that corner they're going to lie nice and flat. The next thing we need to do is turn this rightside-out. Put your index finger all the way into the corner and hold that point with your thumb. You're going to be able to just flip that right out. With Cuddle fabric it's really easy to make a nice point. You can already see how nice this is going to look for that border. We need to put the center fabric back inside, but if you've already had it pinned and secured, you won't need to do that; the fabric is already inside. What we're looking for is the fabric inside needs to be slightly smaller than that outside. That way we don't have additional bulk along that outside edge. Now we can tuck this right underneath that binding. From here we're going to need to do a row of stitching. You need to really secure these layers together. There are a couple of ways you can do them. You can pin them, spray baste them, or we can glue them. The glue will hold it temporarily. We now can just simply do a row of stitching right along the edge, all the way around. Be sure to use a wide stitch; something like a zigzag, or a decorative stitch that's going to catch the edge and then come over onto the fabric so it's a nice fat seam. That way it will secure that fabric edge and secure that fabric in. A walking foot would really work well with this particular fabric. I've used a wide zigzag. You can see I used white thread here, but you can always use matching thread. When you turn it over you're going to see that stitching along the back. When I started the seam I did a backstitch to anchor those stitches, then I stitched all the way around. When I came to the end I did another backstitch. Now I don't have to do any hand-stitching at all; I just need to trim off my threads. So this is a small version on how the larger version is going to look. Another thing that helps when it's really large is having that 2" mark running along the edge. It gives you a good idea on where to line up that top piece. To make sure that this stays 2" as you go along, put a ruler in-between the layers and have that fabric cover the 2" mark. You can pin on each side of the ruler. Take out the ruler and then you're going to be able to continue pinning it. The main thing you need to look for is that all the layers are lying together flat. Now I'm going to be able to take this to the machine and do that wide zigzag all the way around just like I did the small one. With that wide zigzag stitch we've stitched the edge so it's down flat. All three layers are stitched together. We have a nice little zigzag along the back. From here the blanket is done, but to prevent those two layers from pulling apart, I'm going to do a couple of tack stitches. And because I have blue on the background and some blue patterns throughout the quilt, I'm going to do tacks stitches right in the middle of some of those blue patterns. I'm going to use just regular thread and make sure that both the layers are flat. Pick up both layers in the needle. do a couple of stitches, and then I'm going to tie the ends up at the top. I want to tie those ends securely but I don't want to pull the fabric in. From there I can cut off the ends. By doing a few of these tacks stitches it's going to keep those two layers together, and you're not going to see any quilting or any stitching on the top and it's going to be very hard to see that tack stitch in the back. These blankets are really easy to make. The thing we need to remember is this top piece of fabric needs to fit somewhere within this border. It's not really important where it fits as long as there's enough for that zigzag to catch all those layers together so that it doesn't pull out as you are using it. You could have it come ½" all the way to almost the edge of that border. Regardless if you make little ones that you can use as loveys, this is a great way to use up little pieces of fabric or great big ones. Without having to finish those edges, it really is quick and easy, and you can make them any size at all. I'll put a link in the description to the free pattern because it's a great reference guide if ever you want to make these. They're fun, they're quick, and there's so many wonderful fabrics that you're going be able to use with this technique. And they're so soft and cuddly. Thank you for joining me today on SewVeryEasy. Feel free to subscribe and, as always, come on back. Let's see what we're sewing next time
in the sewing room. Bye for now!
