#52...miller time

This is Miller......he is the 6 week old pug of my friends Matt and Kelly. To welcome him to his new home, I appliqued him this blanket with his name on it. It was a simple project that took me about an hour to complete and cost me less than $10. Here's how I did it:

1. I purchased a pre-made, washable, soft, acrylic blanket from Ross Dress for Less for $6.

2. I selected the fabric for the letters from my stash (it is a Denyse Schmidt cotton). You need a scrap of fabric about 9 inches by 30 inches to cut the letters from.

3. I chose a font I liked for the letters from my Microsoft font list. I enlarged them to 450 sz. so that they came out at least 6 inches each. I printed the letters in 10% greyscale to save ink. (see photo below)

4. I used Saral wax-free transfer paper to trace the letters onto the fabric. (see photo below)

5. I cut the letters out of the fabric, and positioned them on the blanket.

6. I set the letters in place using stitch witchery so that they would not move around while I stitched around them on the machine.

7. Lastly, I stitched around the perimeter of each letter using my home sewing machine set to a close zig-zag stitch that was wide enough to catch the letter and the blanket on each zig and zag. I pressed the blanket once I was finished using muslin between the blanket and the iron, as not to burn the acrylic blanket.

Now I just need to make one for Miller's new lab sister Macy who is coming home this week!