Personalized baby gifts are so special. Over the years, I have made countless baby blankets for my friend’s babies, have sold them and have even made one for my little one. Below are 10 steps on how to create a personalized baby blanket.
DIY Baby Blanket Supply List
- 1 yard of Soft Fabric (baby fabric, fleece quilting fabric)
- 1 yard of Minky Fabric or Baby Fleece Fabric
- fusible webbing (just the size of copy paper)
- embroidery floss (not shown)
- Matching Tread
Tools Needed to Make Your Baby Blanket
- Iron
- Sewing Pins
- Fabric Scissors
- Sewing Machine
- Marker
- Embroidery Hoop (Optional)
10 Steps to Create your DIY Baby Blanket
Makers Gonna Make applique pillow— tutorial includes a templateStep One: Trace the template onto the shiny side of your fusible webbing.
Step 1: Start by cutting your two pieces of fabric. For the blankets I’ve made in the past, I typically try to keep the blanket to approximately 36′ x 36′, but you can make it any size you’d like.
- The interior piece will need to be smaller so that you can easily create a border around it. The borders I make are 2 – 2.5 inches, so I tend to make the interior piece 5-6 inches shorter all around.
- You’ll also want to leave a small section of the exterior fabric to make the letters for the blanket.
Step 2: Trace or hand write the name or word you’d like to use on the fusible fabric.
Step 3: Iron the fusible webbing onto the backside of the fabric according to the manufacture’s instructions. You’ll want to make sure that all of the webbing around the materials is fused so you can easily cut the letters.
Step 5: Place the cut letters onto center fabric. Be sure to leave enough room for the border. After the letters have been placed where you’d like them, you’ll need to iron on the letters according to the fusible fabric’s instructions to help fuse the two fabrics together. This will help keep the letters in place and will make the blanket more durable.
Step 6 (Embroidery Hoop Optional): Put the fabric into the embroidery hoop and hand stitch a border around each letter. I say that the embroidery hoop is optional because I’ve completed this part of the project both with and without an embroidery hoop. It is extremely important not to skip stitching the letters as this is an extra measure to keep the letters sewn onto the blanket and will also help ensure that they do not peel overtime.
Step 7: Now that the name is on the blanket, lay both pieces of your blanket fabric on top of each other making sure that the right side of the bottom fabric is faced down and the right side of the top fabric is faced up. Center the top piece of fabric so you can easily start to pin the binding in the next step.
Step 8: To start the binding, start a couple of inches from the corner and pinch the raw side of the backing down and fold it on top the front of the blanket. Secure the fabric in place with a pin. Continue to do fold the fabric and pin it along each side of the blanket leaving the corners unpinned.
Step 9: Once all sides are pinned down, fold the fabric at each of the corners and pin it in place. (You may need to cut some excess fabric so the corners lay flat)
Step 10: Take your pinned blanket to the sewing machine and begin sewing the fabrics together. Continue to stitch along each of the edges and all corners. Feel free to use a decorative stitch like I did if your sewing machine has that option. Once you’re done sewing make sure you remove all pins and cut any excess thread from the blanket.
You’re now done! Yay! Now you have a beautiful personalized blanket that will work great as a gift or can be something special for your little one. Also, if you have extra fabric you can save it for another project or use it to make burp clothes like I did. What do you think? Will you be making a homemade blanket anytime soon? Leave your comments below!
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