How to Make a Baby Blanket

How to Make a Baby Blanket

Making a baby blanket for a little one is one of the most precious things one can do as a sewist. Handmade blankets are the perfect baby shower gift and there is nothing like seeing your little one wrapped up in a blanket that you made with your own hands. This receiving blanket is not hard to make and it is a really versatile technique that you can use for other projects like napkins, door flags, or so many other great projects. Here is how to make a baby blanket that is lightweight and perfect for swaddling.

How to Make a Baby Blanket

How Many Yards of Fabric do you Need to Make a Baby Blanket?

The best thing about this receiving blanket is that you can use so many different sizes. If you are stalking the remnant bin for a great deal on fabric this blanket is perfect. One yard of fabric is a great size to swaddle a little one with. You could make this with a smaller cut and use it as a lightweight stroller or carseat blanket. I used one yard for this tutorial and it is plenty big for all the uses listed above. I don’t recommend using this method for anything much larger than one yard without piecing cuts together.

Supplies:

1 Yard Flannel (or fleece or cotton)

Wonderclips

Walking Foot

Sewing Gauge

Cricut Easy Press or Iron

How do you Make a Fleece Baby Blanket?

This blanket can be made from fleece, flannel, or cotton. It is a really versatile method if you follow the steps carefully it will come together really nicely. You could technically make this with minky fabric but there is no backing and minky is very difficult to work with especially when you don’t have another fabric to anchor it.

The first step is to square the sides of your fabric. I used flannel for this tutorial but you will use the same steps regardless of your material choice.

** TIP: You can fold your fabric in half both ways, then you only have to square two sides.

How do you Make a Mitered Corner in Sewing?

Oh I am so glad you asked! This blanket has sweet little mitered corners on the back and they are easier than you think to make.

A sewing gauge is a crucial supply for this blanket. Set the gauge to 1 1/2″. Fold each corner down so that it lines up with the gauge. Clip or pin the corner in place and then press the seam firmly with your EasyPress (or iron.)

Now set your gauge to 1/2″. Fold all four edges down to 1/2″ making sure to use your gauge frequently to measure. Use your clips to hold the edge in place and then press again using your EasyPress or iron.

Fold the edges under again 1/2″ using the same method as above, measuring with the gauge frequently. Then press firmly to set.

As you can see above you may have some excess fabric at each corner from the original triangle fold. Use a pen to mark where the excess falls.

Take the pin out and move the folded fabric away. Use scissors to cut on the outside of the line you marked. This will ensure that you have removed enough fabric while also removing the pen line.

Fold the fabric back into place, it should easily fold since you pressed the folds in firmly with your heat source. Use a zig zag or a multi step zig zag stitch to sew around the edges. This stitch is meant to enclose the folded edge, so one half of the stitch should catch the folded edge while the other half is on the single layer of fabric in the middle of the blanket.

**Optional – You can take the stitch all the way up each corner to hold the mitered corner firmly in place.

What is the Size of a Baby Blanket?

As I said above the great thing is you can make a baby blanket just about any size that suits your fancy. For this blanket I like to use 1 yard of fabric and the finished size comes out to 34″ x 41″ (depending on the WOF it could be 40″ – 44″ since the width varies.

A smaller size that I have made is 23″ x 34″ and this is a great size for brand new babies who would be swallowed up by the larger full yard version. For this size start with a cut of fabric that measures 25″ x 36″. This is just a general guideline, this method is extremely flexible and can be used on many different sizes of fabric cuts. Customize it however you like. If you have a baby blanket that you like you could measure it and then add 1″ to each side or 2″ to the height and 2″ to the width for seam allowance.

Now you know how to sew a baby blanket.