How to Put Crochet Edges on Flannel Baby Blankets

Flannel blankets are warm, cozy wraps for babies, as receiving and swaddling blankets, and they are usually easy to find or to make yourself. Often, though, they are pretty plain and a little boring. Jazz them up with a crocheted edging that gives them a homemade touch.

With small crochet hooks, you can usually poke holes as you go around the loosely woven flannel, but adding a blanket stitch edging first makes it easier to keep the crochet stitches spaced evenly around the piece. Use crochet cotton thread or lightweight yarn in a matching or contrasting color to border the blanket before you begin to crochet. Make the stitch by bringing your needle up from the back of the fabric and pulling the thread through to the knot you tied in the end. Bring the needle up in the same spot, pull the thread up and slide the needle under the thread. This anchors your stitching. Now, bring the needle up about 1/4 inch away from the first spot and pull the needle through the loop before drawing the thread tight. Continue repeating to create blanket stitch edging around the perimeter of the blanket.

You can make blanket edging from cotton crochet thread, baby weight, fingering yarn or worsted-weight yarn. The size of the hook will depend on your thread or yarn choice, but a Size 7 or 8 -- B-1 -- hook works well for the lighter weight materials, while worsted weight takes well to an I-9 to K-10 1/2 hook.

Join the yarn to the blanket by sliding your hook under one of the blanket stitches and pulling up a loop onto the hook. Make three chain stitches, then double crochet in each blanket stitch until you reach the corner. For a blanket with rounded corners, make two double-crochet stitches in each of the three corner blanket stitches. For square corners, make five double-crochet stitches in the blanket stitch at the corner. Continue to double crochet around the blanket until you reach the starting point. Slip stitch into the first stitch. Cut the yarn, pull the end through the loop on the hook and weave the ends into the stitching to secure and hide them.

Connect the yarn to the blanket and make two chain stitches. Make a half-double stitch in each blanket stitch to the corner. Make the corners as you would for the basic border. At the beginning, slip stitch into the first stitch and chain one. Single crochet in each half-double all the way around. Finish off and weave the ends.

Attach cotton thread to the blanket and single crochet all the way around, turning the corners as in the basic border instructions. Chain four, skip the first two stitches and then single crochet in the next stitch. Repeat the skip two single-crochet next pattern all around.

Fasten the thread or yarn and single crochet all the way around, turning the corners the same way. Slip stitch into the first single crochet. Next, single crochet into the first stitch, skip the next two stitches, and then make five double-crochet stitches in the same stitch, skip two and repeat the pattern around the blanket.