Shopit’s been almost a month since my last post. i have zero idea where time goes. but the good news is that i haven’t let time get too far by without doing some fun stuff.
i absolutely love this time of the year. christmas is my favorite, favorite time of the year. and it’s no surprise that i find it way more exciting since the little man has come along. with each year, he just becomes more and more engaged and has that adorable, wanna-eat-it-up childhood innocence that happens around the holidays. love.
like with most little ones, we’re in a “this-is-my-favorite-character” phase right now. and the winner is “cars 2” and lightning mcqueen. (note: most of you might know that my son has been flat-out obsessed with mickey mouse for the last year and a half. oh, that obsession still continues.) of course, i had to figure out some way to do something with the “cars” theme with a little handmade-ness for my little guy for christmas. the winner was one of those super-simple no-sew fleece blankets.
i had only made one other of these before making the lightning mcqueen christmas present. (that one was for a sweet little girl who turned three this past fall.) as for instructions, instructions can be found anywhere online (through everyone’s best friend, google). i actually got my instructions from my hobby lobby store…it was simple enough to just ask and they had a stack of instructions printed out already. (awesome. loved this.) but to make it easy, here are the materials and super-easy instructions i followed….
no-sew blanket
total time: about an hour to make (note: i did wash my fleece fabric to account for any shrinking before getting started on the blanket)
materials:
1-1/2 to 2 yards of fleece fabric (depends on how large you want the blanket to be)…and note here you’ll need two different fleeces. for mine, i did a “cars” theme on one side and a solid royal blue on the other. so you need the 1-1/2 to 2 yards for each fleece you choose.
scissors (either straight-edge or pinking shears)
ruler/measuring tape
seam ripper
to start, like i mentioned, i’d highly recommend washing both cuts of fleece that you get. this makes sure you are getting rid of any shrinking that might happen. then, find a floor space that’s big enough for you to lay out the fleece on. put the two pieces of fleece together, right-sides out (for anyone who doesn’t know, right-sides are the ones that have the printing on them)with both pieces of fleece with right-sides out, you need to even out the edges (one thing i saw with the printed fleeces is that the selvege ends have printing on them)
the easiest way to even out the edges is to match up all four sides. then, i cut through both pieces of fleece to trim off the printed selvege end and do the same on the top side of the fleece to even out the top end of the fabric.
once the ends are even, at each corner, cut out a 4″ x 4″ square of fabric. once these squares are cut, you’ll begin cutting the “fringe” pieces all around the perimeter of the fleece. these can be anywhere between 1/2″ to 1″ wide (i went with 1″ wide…when looking at how thin 1/2″ would be, i was worried the fringe edge could tear later).
now’s the fun part. taking your seam ripper, and one of your top pieces of fringe (in my case, the “cars” fleece), push the seam ripper through the fabric near the top of the piece of fringe and make a slit about 1/4″ long. then, take the bottom piece of matching fringe (in my case the royal blue fleece) and pull it through the back of the slit you just made. that’ll give you the layered look on the top of your blanket, and by doing it all the way around your blanket, it’ll keep the two pieces together.
it’s a super simple blanket which makes a great gift for a little one.
additional materials shopping tip: i went to both hobby lobby and jo-ann’s to scope out their fleece options. both stores have quite a bit of both printed fleece and solid color fleece. jo-ann’s does carry a full no-sew blanket kit, but when i did a little comparison shopping, i was actually able to do my blanket for a little less than the cost of the kit they were selling. and, i’m always a huge fan of using the hobby lobby or jo-ann’s coupons and these came in handy when getting the fabric too.
i can’t wait to give my little guy this blanket at christmas. if nothing else, it’ll be something else that’ll help keep him nice and warm this cold winter. enjoy!
