Hi.
My name is Margie Memmott.
I work for Utah State University Extension
Service in Juab County.
And today, we're going to be making a perfectly mitered
corner blanket.
And I'm going to show you the tools that you need to do this.
You need two pieces of contrasting fabric,
you need a cutting board, a cutting ruler,
and a rotary cutter.
And make sure that you be very careful with that
because it is very, very sharp.
You need a pair of scissors, you need a marking pen,
you also need a seam gauge to measure,
and you need your pins and a point turner.
We're going to make a baby blanket that ends up
being about 1 yard square.
And in order to get that, we're going
to cut the back piece of fabric 42 inches square
and the front piece of fabric 32 inches square.
So there's a 10 inch difference.
And the first thing we're going to do to get that square,
we want to make sure that we cut the salvage edge off.
And if you'll notice this salvage edge,
it has its different color.
It's got a print in it, it's got little holes in it,
and we want to make sure that does not go
in the design of our blanket.
So we want to make sure to trim that all off.
So the back is going to be 42 inches square.
And I'm going to do the same thing with the front
so that it makes the front piece 32 inches square.
So I have my two pieces of fabric already cut in squares.
Now, I need to find the center of each side.
So I'm going to fold each side in half and mark it with a pin.
And I've done that on both of these pieces of fabric.
So I have a pin marking the center
of the back and the front.
I need the lengthwise grain and the crosswise grain
to match up so that my blanket, when I'm sewing it,
will sew together smoothly and evenly
and I won't get any puckers.
And in order to determine which is the wise grain,
I am going to pull on the fabric.
And length wise grain has almost no give.
Crosswise grain on the other hand, when I pull on it,
it has quite a bit of stretch.
So I'm checking that.
And this fabric piece is also stretching quite a bit here.
So the crosswise grains are matched up
and the lengthwise grains are matched up.
So I'm going to go back to my centers,
lay the blanket out flat, use my seam
gauge to measure the distance of the back piece
and make sure that it is exactly the same on this side
as it is on the opposite side.
And if it's not, then in order to make them exactly the same,
then I would come back to the center
and I would shift my top piece to be exactly the same.
And in this instance, I'm trying to get to the 5 inches
because there's a difference of 10 inches.
So 5 on this side, and 5 on the other side.
So there we go.
That's perfectly set so that we can continue.
I'm going to mark my start points.
So now, I'm going to take my seam gauge
and I'm going to measure in 1/4 inch
from the edge of the smaller piece of fabric.
And then I'm going to go around the corner
and I'm going to measure in 1/4 inch
and I'm going to make a mark with my pen.
And that is called my start point.
And this is where I'm going to start sewing
and where I'm going to stop sewing.
And I'm going to use my pin, pin right into the mark,
and I'm going to do make the mark
and pin it at the other end.
Now, once you get both ends pinned at the start point
and pin it in the center, then I'm
going to take this to the sewing machine
and I'm going to sew 1/4 inch seam all the way down
this edge from the start point that I began
with to the ending stop point.
I want to make sure to back stitch at each end.
And I sew to, but not through the stop points.
So I've changed blankets.
This blanket I have actually sewn the first two sides.
And one thing that I wanted to tell you
is as you're sewing the blanket together [AUDIO OUT]
to leave an opening about a handspan
so that you can turn the blanket right side out after you
have sewn all four sides.
So now with my first two sides sewn,
I'm ready to sew the third and fourth side of the blanket.
So I'm going to do pretty much the same thing that I
did on the first two sides, but it gets a little tricky
because the fabric doesn't feel.
It's not moving very easily because we've
sewn those first two sides.
But we're going to use the same principles.
We go back to the center, we match up the pins,
which mark the center.
We bring the edge of the top fabric down
to the edge of the bottom fabric and work that.
All smooth, laying flat, all the way down the end
of the blanket.
And I'm going to shift this so that you
can see this particular side.
Now, I'm going to measure and make sure,
again that the back piece of fabric
has the same amount showing on this end
as it does on the opposite end.
And I will measure both ends, and then I'm
going to shift my top fabric to make sure that it is exactly
in the center.
And I'll measure that one more time.
From the edge of the back piece to the edge of the front piece.
And when I get that so that it's exactly
the same as the other side, then I'm going to do the same thing.
I'm going to take a pin and I'm going to mark pin it
right in that stop point.
So we'll do this pinning on this side and the other end,
and then we will so from the start point to the other stop
point 1/4 inch seam, and then do the same thing
for the fourth side.
Now, that we have both ends pinned on the third side,
we're going to start sewing at the start point,
go all the way down to the other end
and stop at the stop point here making
sure to back stitch and sew to, but not
through the stop points.
And we're going to do the very same thing on the fourth side.
And at that point, your blanket will
be all sewn on all four sides.
Then we'll be ready for the next step.
So here we have another blanket that I'm working on.
And it's got all four sides sewn.
And it ends up that I've got this floppy edge
on every corner.
And at this point in time, we're going
to make our mitered corner.
So I'm going to pinch it right here where
the front piece ends.
So in other words, I've got the stop point right in my fingers,
and I'm going to shake and adjust
the blanket so that the outside or the back piece
wraps around the front piece and the seams match up exactly.
And then I'll shake the blanket--
I'm going to hold it tight and I'm going to shake the blanket
and lay it flat on the table, and then I'll
show you how to make the mitered corner.
So we're laying this out flat making sure that the seam
edges match up exactly.
And I'm using the grid of the cutting
board underneath to be a help and a guide for me.
So here's the stop point, and have my theme coming to,
but not through the stop point.
And now I have to draw my line and make my mark
to sew the mitered corner.
So what I'm going to do is take her a ruler or anything
with the right angle and I'm going
to use the folded edge as my guide for my right angle.
And I'll line up the ruler to the edge of-- to the fold,
and then I'm going to draw a line where the stop point is
at the edge of the fabric.
You can use a piece of paper, anything with the right angle.
So I could even take a piece of paper
and I could match that up.
You don't have to have an expensive ruler.
And I'm going to take my pen and I'm going to mark that line.
And I'm going to sew that from the fold back stitching,
coming down, and then sewing to, but not through the stop point.
And I do that on all four sides.
And before we go on, I want to just show you
that if you by accident use your right angle
and line it up to the seam edge and match it to the stop point
and draw your line here, then sew you're seam
and then cut your little tail off,
you will have taken out a chunk of fabric
that you needed for your mitered blanket.
So make sure you don't make that mistake.
Make sure that you use the fold as the guide
for your right angle coming down to the stop point.
Now that I've sewn the mitered corner seam
and I've clipped my threads, I've
done this on all four corners.
Now it's time to trim this little floppy peace.
And if I sewed a 1/4 inch seam, then I'm
going to trim a 1/4 inch.
Now, I'm going to take the blanket from the corners
and I'm going to shake it out.
So I'll turn it this way so you can see what I'm doing.
So I've taken the blanket by two corners
and I'm shaking it out so that hangs really nice.
And then I would lay it flat.
And at this point, I would take it to the ironing board
and I will press the seams to the outside,
towards the outside edge all the way around.
So we'll take that to the iron and press those seams out.
And then we would, using the opening that we have left,
we will turn the blanket right side out.
So now, I have my blanket turned right side out.
And here is my hole that I'm going
to actually utilize my point turner
to get those perfect points.
So I'll show you how I do that.
So I take my point turner and I go in through the hole
and I push with that point, and I get that perfect point
and end up having that great mitered corner.
And it's going to look awesome once we get it all pressed.
So I have the points turned on this.
I've taken it to the iron.
And as you can see, this is another blanket.
It's almost finished.
One more step.
So I'm going to show you how to do that.
We've got the opening here.
We've pressed it.
We need to secure the opening shot with our pins.
Now, we're ready to take it to the sewing machine
and we are going to do a final top stitch.
Just inside edge of the binding back piece of the
blanket all the way around the end,
and when you get that done, you will have a finished product.
Your blanket will be all done.
So here is an example of some of the blankets that you can do.
And these are all flannel.
But you can use different types of fabric
according to the season.
We have some broad cloth right here for the summery look.
We actually even have some minky here for winter.
And some finishing touches you can do
are rick rack right on that seam where the back joins the front.
Or you can apply the rick rack right inside as you're
sewing the seams together.
And another thing I wanted to show you is you
can make your border be smaller or larger.
So have fun with your mitered corner blanket.