Sew Time for Me: Summer Blankets

It's starting to get warm here in the Midwest so my daughter ask for a couple lightweight summer blankets for her kids. We went to JoAnn and picked out some fabric.

She picked out this cute fox fabric for my grandson who is three months.

My five year old granddaughter picked out this cute elephant fabric for her blanket.

These are lightweight knits. I hadn't sewn on knits for years and was somewhat nervous about trying again.

When I first learned to sew from my mom, I don't remember anything about changing needles, stitch length, tension or any of the technical things. I think she probably just took care of those and let me sew. When I went back to sewing as an adult, I didn't know or remember those things. So, I sometimes struggled if I was sewing on anything other than regular cotton.

Fortunately, I've watched a lot of You Tube and read enough to realize that I need to use the correct needle type and size for each type of fabric. I sometimes need to adjust my tension or my length of stitch. I need to clean and oil my machine too!

Learning all this made sewing on knit for the first time in years much easier. Making these little blankets was a piece of cake. I knew I needed a ballpoint needle. That made all the difference. I remember trying to sew knit with a regular sharp needle and not having good results.

I also used to struggle with getting an even hem, but that all changed this time since I have a new gadget to help.

This isn't a great photo, but it's the Clover Hot Ruler. The ruler is made out of nylon and can be ironed. It made measuring the hem easy. I simply folded the edge of the fabric over the ruler to the amount I wanted and pressed. It made getting an even hem much easier. I'll do a longer review on this ruler soon.

I was able to use the ruler for the both the first turn up and for the second also. I love my nice even hem!

I sewed my granddaughter's elephant blanket first and was nervous so I made the hem bigger. I remembered the fabric getting pulled down the hole and having all sorts of trouble with knits last time I had tried. It worked great so with the second blanket I got brave and tried a smaller hem and didn't have any problems.