Lovely Fleece Preemie Blankies

I will be teaching how to crochet edging on a fleece blanket at my April Smocking Guild meeting. It is always more fun to do a project when it is not a rush, so I thought I'd start some samples now!

I have previously made infant blankets from flannel with hemstitching and a thread crocheted edge. I LOVE these and used them all the time when Andy was an infant. I was originally planning to teach it on flannel. Then I realized that it would be too difficult for people who have never crocheted and too time consuming!

I had read about using fleece and yarn, so I decided to give it a try. One advantage of fleece is that you can use a "skip cutter" or rotary blade that cuts slits, to make your foundation holes. With flannel, I hemstitched the edge, which is also labor and time intensive if you need samples for 15-20 people!
The picture above show the back side. You can see the tiny holes the cutter made. I rolled about 1/4" of fleece to the back and crocheted over it.

This blanket is 22" square and it is shown on a 19" baby doll. This doll is a "reborn" baby, meaning the parts come as plain vinyl and you paint and assemble the doll. My super-talented daughter Katie did this baby (and several others). It has painted hair and also a little bit of rooted "fuzz". The details are amazing and it gives me a chance to "try things on" a newborn-sized model.

Here is a picture of the folded blanket. It is extremely soft! I think it will be perfect to donate along with our Wee Care gowns. I am picturing coordinating gowns and blankets. Wouldn't this be pretty with a gingham robin's egg gown?

This picture shows the detail of this doll- isn't it beautiful? I'm already working on more blanket samples. I am thinking of white with a variegated edging or printed fleece with a colored edging...