The Adventures of Yellow

Amy has a security blanket she calls Yellow. Yellow was a gift from her Aunt Nancy when Amy was born. It's not fancy (or glittery, thank goodness!), but Amy formed an early attachment to it and it's become her comfort object. You've probably noticed it in many photos, because Yellow is pretty much always present at home. (Yellow is not allowed in public, except for rare occasions when he has to stay in the car.)

Yellow's been around for 4 years. And in 4 years, Yellow has been THRASHED. He's faded from numerous washings, stretched out, and Amy began chewing on his corners a few months back, so there are now actual holes in a couple of the corners.

To put it bluntly, Yellow was gross. He doesn't look as bad in this picture as he actually looked in real life. (In case you're wondering, Amy is the one who determined Yellow is a boy. No idea why, but whatever. She's insistent.)

So, Brett and I have been working on her for several days now about letting us "help" Yellow. A replacement blanket was out of the question. Identical fabric is nowhere to be found (believe me, I looked), and there was no way a "different" Yellow was going to fly. So, we finally managed to talk her into letting me add some "fancy" fabric to Yellow. Once she agreed, yesterday, we wasted no time. We went to Joann Fabrics (my favorite store in the entire world). Amy even got to bring Yellow in so he could "help" pick out fabric. We got some cute purple polka dot flannel, yellow minky fabric for the back, and yellow satin blanket binding.

Once we got home, the kids went to bed. We'd told Amy she could take Yellow to bed one last time, and that after she was asleep, Daddy would come get Yellow so I could help him grow. About an hour later, Brett snagged Yellow from her room and I got to work.

I really wish I'd taken photos of my different steps. But I didn't. I was a woman on a mission, and that mission could not be interrupted for pictures. I took Yellow apart and then cut Yellow slightly smaller to try to square him off. Then I added a purple border with the flannel I'd bought. In hindsight, I totally did it the hard way, but I like the way it looks. Then I attached the minky to the back, sewing along 3 sides and most of the fourth. Turned it right side out, sewed up the hole I'd left, and attached the satin binding.

It sounds simple.

It wasn't.

For interested parties, minky fabric is a NIGHTMARE to work with. Seriously. Worse than the fabric I picked for Livvie's blessing dress. It's slippery AND it stretches. A lot. So you have to pin like crazy, and hope you didn't screw something up. Well, I did. On 2 different sides. So I seam ripped. And resewed. And realized I'd done it right the first time. So I seam ripped. And resewed more carefully.

Instead of doing straight blocks of purple fabric, for some psychotic reason I decided I wanted the purple to have diagonal corners. I seriously did not even think of doing straight edges until I was writing this post. I have no idea why. Suffice it to say while it wasn't the most difficult, it was tricky to get things to line up.

The satin binding was honestly the easiest part. I've only done blanket binding one other time, and I struggled with the corners. So, before doing this blanket, I looked up some tutorials on Pinterest. Lifesavers. That binding flew on, and my corners look decent.

So, here's the front of Yellow after his growth spurt:

Not the greatest picture, and it's taking Amy some time to warm up to "big" Yellow. She started crying this morning that she wanted tiny Yellow back. Yikes. Little too late, kid. Fortunately, Brett talked her down and she seems to be accepting big Yellow a little better now.

And yes, I stayed up all night sewing this blanket. I was still awake at 7:15am to give it to her.

Totally worth it.