DIY Fleece Tie Blanket

For Christmas this year, I made my new little niece and H & J fleece tie blankets. I've never done anything like this before but it was super easy and the finished product was perfect! I bought 1 meter of fleece for the top {for my niece E's blanket} and one meter for the bottom. For H & J I bought 1.5 meters each for the top and 1.5 meters each for the bottom. E is almost 6 months now {where did the time go!?} and my girlies are 5 and 2 years. Looking back, I should have purchased 2 meters for H's blanket because I wanted it for more of a blanket to sleep with, instead of a throw. {I cut a bit too much of the edges off and the finished product was more square while J's is more rectangular.}

So, here's E's finished blanket:

I just love the way it turned out! I chose baby pink with cream hearts for the top and a solid cream for the bottom. Nice baby girl colours don't ya think? I sure do!

So first what you need to do is lay your fabrics on top of each other {wrong sides together} and trim the edges so they are pretty much even. {Yes, I realize mine doesn't look very even. Clearly my eyes are crooked.}

Make a 5" square template from some cardboard or something sturdy. {I think I did 4" on E's and 5" on H & J's blankets.} Put the template on the corner of the blanket and cut the square out as shown in the picture. You are going to do this on all four sides of the blanket.

 

Next take something heavy or something you can use as a guide and place it along the top where your 5" cut is. {This is so you don't cut deeper than the 5".} Lay a ruler on top or below your fabric and cut 1" from the end of the fabric. You can also just use the aprox width of your thumb, which is what I did on the other two blankets.

Cut "fringes" every inch or so all the way around your blanket.

Next comes the tedious and boring fun part... tying your blanket together! Simply do a regular knot. I only did one knot for each tie on all three blankets... I know the ones for H & J ended up coming undone, so I would double knot each fringe. Yes it takes a while, so my suggestion would be to put a movie on if you are making multiple blankets because you can pretty much zone out and tie the night away.

Once they are all tied, you're done!

Enjoy your new blanket! My girls love theirs! They are both into Care Bears right now, so I chose the same pattern for the tops, and pink for H's bottom and purple for J's bottom {to match their bedrooms.} Sorry for the low quality pics. I took them right before wrapping them up for Christmas.

I think I need to make one for the living room because it's a wee bit chilly at night and I like to lounge on the couch while watching tv once the girlies go to bed.

Happy blanket making! It's easy to make and would be a good gift for kids too!

~Chrissy~