Made with Love, for baby Ava

When Lola was born, my sister-in-law gave me the most beautiful blanket ever for her! I loved it so much, I begged her to tell me where she bought it so that I could get my hands on another one! Of course it was handmade and since then, I have been dying to try to make one on my own, I just had no idea where to start so I kind of let the idea go out the window...
That was, until I was reading Dana's blog, Made, one day and discovered a whole new world! It is really incredible all of the tutorials that she offers (for free, holla) and how precise they are! While poking around, I about fell over when I saw her tutorial for a faux chenille blanket! It is what I had been searching for (but really forgot I was searching because it had been so long)! With a baby shower just a few days away for my friend Jessica, I knew exactly what I was going to attempt (and pray I didn't screw up) for her baby, Ava.

Let me start off by saying that I am a rookie with my sewing machine I got for my birthday almost two years ago and if I can make this blanket, so can you! While I have done little projects here and there, I feel like this blanket really kick started my excitement for what I just might be able to figure out how to sew on my own! And I don't know if you remember me mentioning it before, but it usually takes me like 45 minutes to get the bobbin working correctly, well...not anymore! I am happy to report that we are best friends!
I took pictures of my process, but really, NO ONE does it better than Dana! Seriously, if you want to make this faux chenille blanket, head over to her blog! You will be amazed at how easy she explains things (even tells you what to do if you make a mistake)! I can only take the credit for the finished product on my end, the how-to is all her!

Crazy to me that 5 yards of different colored fabric (4 of them solid colors) can make such a beautiful blanket!

It is not a lie, this blanket takes close to forever to make (okay, not forever, but it took me very close to 8 hours. The sewing of lines and then the cutting of lines never seemed to end)! What I like about this blanket is that if your lines aren't the straightest it is pretty forgiving and it is okay if it isn't perfect!

Back side of the blanket:

Faux Chenille Side of the blanket:

Another great thing about this blanket, it gets softer with each wash, and has been through the wash twice at our house to get it ready for the shower. Not going to lie, I was so worried it was going to fall apart in there the first time I ran it through!

There you have it, my first faux chenille blanket, made for baby Ava, with lots and lots of love from her Auntie Jenni and Kyan. He was my pin man, handing them to me and taking them out as we got to them on the machine! He wants to start sewing and loves to craft just like his mama!

And yes, there will be more of these blankets, my kids are begging for their own! So when we get back from vacation, we'll be off to the fabric store to pick out something for them! I am going to attempt to make theirs a little bigger, not sure how I am going to make it happen, but I am going to try!