New moms will find they receive a plethora of baby blankets for their first baby. It’s hard to pass up a baby blanket, they are now made with such soft and fluffy materials. It just feels so good to rub a soft blanket against your face, and picture a sweet baby wrapped inside.
While a new mom may receive many blankets not all will be kept and remembered past the first year. Baby blankets are great for the first year, but after that they begin to take up space where toddler toys could go. Make sure your baby blanket gift passes the “should I donate this blanket to charity” test. Make sure your baby blanket gift is unique and original. The no sew fleece baby blanket fits the bill perfectly.
I have two sewing machines, neither of which work, so when heard about the no sew baby blanket I was all over it. Fleece is so fluffy and soft, and warm. This is particularly helpful if you live in a cold climate, like we do.
You have a huge variety of fabrics to choose from, as they are making fleece in just about any color and design you can imagine these days. You can choose to use the same fleece, two different colors, patterns or however you think the blanket will look nice. It’s really up to you. So here are the instructions for making a no sew baby blanket for the new mom in your life.
What you will need:
2 pieces of fleece each 1 1/2 yards
scissors (make sure they are sharp) or a rotary cutter
pins (optional)
one 4″ by 4″ piece of paper
ruler or tape measure (ruler works better)
self healing mat (only if using rotary cutter)
What you need to do
First you want to make sure you cut away any selvage along the edges of your fleece. Don’t cut away too much as you want to keep the size of your fleece as big as you can.
Now put your two pieces of fleece on top of one another. This will be the two sides of your blanket. Check and put the fluffier sides of your fleece facing out.
When your two pieces are put together, match up the edges and make sure they are fairly even. I pin them together at this point using straight pins. This makes it easier for me to keep them together and even for the fringe cutting.
Now take your piece of 4X4 paper and put it in the corner. You will cut out a 4 inch square from each of the corners, through both pieces of fleece. Doing this will allow your fringe to line up and make perfect corners.
It’s now time to cut your fringe. You want to cut your fringe pieces to be 1 inch each. Go ahead and cut them all the way around all four sides of your blanket. I find this is easier and more accurate with a rotary cutter. If you use a rotary cutter, make sure to put a self healing mat under where you are cutting as to not destroy the surface you are using.
Once all your fringe pieces are cut it’s time to get tying. Go ahead and tie the two pieces of fleece together. You want to tie overhand knots. Go all the way around the blanket tying every other piece of fringe.
When you get all the way around doing every other one, flip the blanket over and tie the rest of the fringe all the way around. Doing this helps keep the fringe even and looking good.
Once you have finished tying the fringe don’t forget to take the pins out if you used them.
You have just completed your no sew baby blanket. It’s pretty rewarding and a new mom will appreciate that you took the time, effort and thought to make a homemade baby blanket gift for her new bundle of joy.
This is a great idea for personal baby gift and the fact that it can be done by someone with no sewing skills is even better. I also like the concept of being able to make something that is very meaningful but can also be done in a relatively short period of time. Like myself, so many people are pushed time-wise these days, if not with the corporate world, then with the fast paced lives of their families. I posted here about your great baby blanket gift ideas to my gift blog, and hope others will read your great ideas.
I have made these and then looped a ribbon through one of the knots in the four corners to be able to tie the blanket to the crib rails. It works really well, especially if you are worried about the baby pulling the blanket up over their face. If all 4 corners are tied to the crib, they can’t pull it over their face. My son stays pretty stationary in his crib, but I can see how this might not work well if your kiddo moves around a lot and ends up all of the way underneath the blanket.
Great idea. I never would have thought of that. The one I made when my kiddo was born she uses more now (and she’s almost 5) than we ever did when she was a baby. It’s the perfect size throw for her now.