Hand Sewn Fleece Toddler Blanket Tutorial! – The Blanket Stitch!

My sewing machine is on the fritz!!!! It stopped working right before Christmas!! and of course I left some Christmas sewing projects till the last couple days before. This year Corbin asked Santa for a nice blanket and pillow, So I thought “This is a great opportunity to make him a fun blanket! More creating!! YAY!!”  Corbin is very attached to his baby blanket, or as he calls it, his “Tickle Blanket.” So, I wanted to make him something that he loves just as much, if not more than the small “tickle blanket,” that he insists on sleeping with each night. It barely covers his 3-year-old body. So with only 3 days before Christmas I attempted to hand stitch a new big boy puppy blanket, using the blanket stitch (I linked a bunch of super cute puppy fabrics at the end of this post… they are a must check out!!). I hope he appreciates it. Lol

So I’m very new to hand sewing anything because I’m lazy, and love using my sewing machine for everything! It’s hard for me to have the patience to hand sew, maybe it’s because I’m not confident that my hand stitching will look anything near as perfect as a sewing machine stitch looks. But at this point I didn’t have a choice, so this is what we are working with, hand sewing the blanket stitch!

I researched all different hand stitches and I like the simplicity of the blanket stitch the best. However, what I didn’t like was that this stitch didn’t seem to give the blanket a 100% finished look with the stitch being right at the edge of the blanket, so I decided to roll the edge of the blanket about 1/2 inch and do the blanket stitch over that. Let me know what you think? By doing this, it hides any trace of the edge of the fabric, and because the fabric is doubled it’s a bit thinker and baubley when stitched over. Creating an almost slightly pompom edged effect. And you know I like my pompoms (check out our Christmas pompom stockings here). So if you don’t have a sewing machine, or you are looking for a different way to finish the edge of a blanket, this tutorial is for you!

BLANKET STITCH – DOUBLE THICK FLEECE BLANKET TUTORIAL

MATERIALS NEEDED

• Embroidery thread (I used dark navy blue embroidery thread)
• Needle
• 2 meters of fleece for the top of the blanket (or what ever size you wish to make)
• 2 meters of fleece for the under side of the blanket

MY BLANKET STITCH METHOD

Step 1: Trim away selvages off of both of the fleece fabrics and make sure they are the same size by laying the underside fabric face side down on the floor as flat as possible and then lay you top fabric face side up on top of the bottom sheet.

Step 2: Thread your needle with embroidery thread and knot it at the end.

Step 3: Fold your backing fabric onto your front fabric about 3/4 of an inch. By doing this your stitching will be over the folded edge instead of right at the edge. I thought the stitches of a folded edge gave the blanket a bit of a more finished look, hiding the very edge of the fabric. Like this…

Step 4: Blanket stitch all the way around the blanket! This is the YouTube Tutorial that I used to teach myself the blanket stitch. She explains it much better than I would especially since this was my first time doing it. Just remember my step # 3!! I also made my stitches bigger (about 1/2 an inch wide and long), and I pulled my stitches a lot tighter then what is shown in the tutorial. I hope that helps. If you have any questions about it at all I’d love to help sort it out with you!

I’d like to mention that Corbin unfortunately will not sleep with his new lovingly made fleece puppy blanket… He is still very attached to his “tickle blanket”. As I try to get him to sleep with his new big boy blanket each night, he tells me he will “later when I’m older”. After he falls asleep I put it on him and sneak away (sneaky mommy). For now it’s more of a play blanket, and yes I had to bribe them with a treat to take these photos… but it was worth it. lol.

Look at sweet Corbin and his crazy sister problems (she is definitely a 2-year-old now!!!). Lol… look at her crazy face!

And of course she tried to steal the show.

Just kidding… Corbin is the show stopper! (wink)

I hope this post gives you a different alternative way to finish the edging of your fleece blanket projects. I love how it turned out because it had more work put into it, more love put into it, I learned a new skill, and I have the memories of staying up late before Christmas Eve trying to get it done. I’ll hold him to his words about using it when he’s older! How old were your kids when they grew out of needing their baby blankets? I hope it’s sooner than later, because it seems like he’s freezing under one little baby blanket, especially since he also insists on sleeping naked. The blanket doesn’t even cover his legs. He’s weird. lol. Just kidding, he’s the best. Until next time, have fun creating!

XO JCL

P.S. Here are some more awesome sewing projects for you to peruse!

P.P.S. Here are some links to products like the ones used in this tutorial. I couldn’t find the exact fleece puppy fabric that I used because I got mine from my local fabricland, but I posted some other fun puppy fabrics that I think would make a super cute blanket or vest sewing project for your own puppies or puppy loving friends!! Check them out! pppsssttt… There are 169 pages of dog fleece fabrics on Amazon! You should check them out! Now I know what I’m doing tonight (wink)! Here are some of a favorites because they are related to some of my dog loving friends in my life!