Baby Crinkle Ribbon Square

Last night I had a baby crinkle blanket tutorial staring at me in the face. It is not a large blanket, just a small one that is easy to grap with a babies hands. Not sure what possessed me to start this at 11pm last night after getting home from a friends Memorial weekend party. But, I did. Was I tired, yes! And very energetic...

I got all my pieces together by looking around the house to see what I had stashed somewhere. I used a ribbon that was wrapped around some Liz Claiborne pajamas my mom sent me, as well as some ribbon my kid uses to torture the cat with (he chases her around the house if it is dragging on the floor). The third piece of ribbon came from a roll of ribbon I purchased to help decorate a Valentine's box project for my daughter's school. I grabbed an empty baby wipes bag that I had laying around (waiting to be thrown away, apparently). And then I grabbed some of my Robert Kaufman Chirp Hearts Pink 100% cotton fabric.

Now, if I wasn't so tired this might have turned out REALLY great the first time. Instead, I continued on to make sure I finished this in a short time. I cut out my squares on the fabric and baby wipes baggie. I then sewed the baby wipes to the backside of the fabric. I cut my ribbon pieces and pinned them on the backside of the fabric where the baby wipes bag is and baste stitched. Then I grabbed the other square and put the front side fabric pieces together and sewed all around the square leaving an opening to bring the inside out. Again, I stress that I was tired but energetic...

As I flipped the inside out, I realized the ribbon was on the WRONG side. It is now on the inside of the square. *blank stare* Tired, and it hit me that I definitely did not need to be touching a sewing machine at this point, either. I knew I could fix it, and decided I would. So I grabbed my little seam ripper tool and proceeded to take the seam out from all away around the bag. When my husband walked in the room to go to bed at midnight is when I decided to put it down and finish the next day...

Today is a great day. Did a best friend drink and bracelet exchange with my oldest daughter, and then took the girls to the local free splash pond. Once I got home I was in the mood to sew. I picked up the crinkle square and ripped the seam out. This time while ripping the seam wasn't nearly as difficult as it was the night before. In fact, what was taking me 20 minutes when I was tired, only took about 2 mins when I was awake. Seam out, ribbons pinned on front side, basted seam, placed right sides together and basted again. Flipped it inside out, zig zagged stitch the outer edges and voila! Finished product:

I am quite impressed with this. Check out this zig zag stitch. Unfortunately, the ONLY setting my Singer sewing machine does. I can't wait to get my Husqvarna back!

Here is the tutorial I was staring at: http://www.joyshope.com/2009/05/baby-crinkle-square-tutorial.html

The only thing I did was look at all the photos. Completely easy for a beginner, especially one that has a bad habit of NOT reading directions. I am trying to read directions though, that is why I am starting this little blog project for me to reform my sewing skills. If I can start from scratch, just do the basics, photo journal and blog it, then I can go back and review what I had done and learn from it. G'nite!

"Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide." ~Buddha