Beautiful Life Made Easy: Fake-make a baby blanket

See this blanket here?
Well this little boy is in love.

It was actually Terry's old baby blanket. A baby blanket that was well loved by this boy's daddy once many years ago--and a blanket that came to us tattered and so well loved that I thought that it might be just something that we put away in our memory box and never use. But instead, Terry's mom brought it back to life by putting new satin ribbon around the edges and all of a sudden our little Carter couldn't do without it.

So as I watched this little boy fall in love with his daddy's old blanket, I also started to think about what on earth we were going to do come September when we needed to have one blanket left at daycare for nap time and one left at our own house as well. So I decided that I needed to have a backup option--and really, all that it needed to be was a quilt with that glorious silk ribbon on it...because the silk is what he loves the most. He'll fall asleep rubbing his fingers between it and drift off into dreamland all snuggled up.

So I headed off to the fabric store the other day, having no clue how to make a quilt, but assuming that I'd figure something out.
I just had no idea what.
It was the same feeling that I had when I decided that I wanted to make a bench cushion a little while ago...

I didn't know what I was doing, but I somehow figured it out. Because a wanna-be sewer is really what I am.

So I walked into the fabric store and searched through the mounds of fabric options until I found the fabric that I loved. And it was about to cost me a small fortune...

...until I headed over to the quilt batting section, where I was about to spend another mound of money

but instead found this amazing discovery.

A pre-made quilt! Are you kidding me?? This thing is amazing. It has adorable fabric on the one side, quilt batting in the middle, and other cute fabric on the other side. And all I had to do was take the big spool over to the cutting table and ask the ladies to cut as much as I wanted...for a fraction of the price of all of the original fabric that I had in my hands only minutes before.

Am I the only one who didn't even know that these things existed?? Apparently my mom and Jen have known this for years I found out...but this was news to me!

All of a sudden it went from a huge, difficult, expensive project to a super simple (and super cheap!) one. All that I had to do was sew the satin ribbon on and I was done.

And although it might not be as fancy as the beautiful quilts that others know how to make with all of the different squares cut out (although one day, when I'm not moving in a week, I really would love to learn how to do that)...it totally works for what I was looking for.

So, if you're a wanna-be-sewer like me and want to fake-make your own baby quilt...this just might be an option for you. And in the end, you'll have a sentimental, beautiful blanket--since you ~~kinda~~ made it. We'll let baby think that at least.

Here is all that you have to do:

Get your 3yr old to help you measure out with chalk marks how big or small you want your blanket to be. I bought extra fabric, so Mya will have her own little sewing project to do with the scraps.

Cut your fabric.

Get your mother-in-law to set up her sewing machine for you and thread the bobbin--since remember...you're a wanna-be-sewer...these things can be tricky friends.

Then Youtube "sewing satin ribbon onto baby blanket" --because you don't even know what that satin ribbon is called (*FYI, it's called binding apparently, says Youtube) and find this site here where a nice young lady will explain in detail how to do it.

Then follow the steps carefully and realize that doing the corners will make you want to pull your hair out..but you'll be able to do it.

Then voila!

Your handmade cute baby quilt is done--and all that it took was a little Youtube video and a bit of your time.

This entire quilt cost me about $15...instead of the almost $100 that I was originally going to have to spend (so P.S., if anyone ever gives you a quilt as a gift for your baby or yourself, thank them a million times over--because they spent a ton of money and a ton of their time making it)...which I learned first hand with my expensive original fabric draped over my arms.

And it was SO easy!

So this little guy just needs to now fall in love with his new blanket...which thankfully is already starting to happen. Gotta love that satin ribbon.

And when you're done your 20 minute quilt...what's there to do with all of this extra time that you have on your hands?

Well, you go to the beach with a pirate-loving girl and her crocodile little brother...