...of Hearth and Home and Who I Am.: Project Tutorial

I've done posts about "who I am" lately, and have been neglecting the "hearth and home" portion of what I planned this blog to be. (Granted, that may be because I don't feel that I actually have a hearth and home right now, but that's changing soon!)

While I don't have my sewing machine right now, I still have crafty urges,and wanted to make something. There was a wonderful sale at the fabric store and I was able to get beautiful fleece prints to make blankets. I've made 7 blankets in the last few days, and will be making more soon. These are easy and beautiful, and I've worked out how to do a few variations on them. They're also soft and oh-so-warm. (My daughters said they feel like they're made of clouds.)

So here's a tutorial, complete with pictures, on how to make these.

You will need:

Fleece - depending on how big you want the blanket, you'll need different amounts of fleece. A baby blanket could be done with 1 - 1 1/2 yards. Most of the blankets I did (using largely for wrapping up on the sofa in the cold) were done with 2 yards. I did a couple using 2 1/2 yards, and they seem huge...but are long enough that my husband can lay on the sofa and be covered from shoulders to feet. (Actually, when the blankets were done, I could hold them up with my arms extended all the way over my head and they still touched the floor.)

Whichever length you want, buy two pieces (one for the front and one for the back) of the same length.

Step 1

Lay them out on the floor, matching the sides as well as you can. It's easiest if you set the smaller of the two pieces on top.


Lay the two pieces out on the floor, edges matching as much as possible.

Cutting through both layers at the same time, trim the selvedge edges and even out the length so your pieces are the same size.

Step 2

Cut the corners out of your blanket. The size of the corners will depend on the size of the fringe you will be cutting. For most blankets, I use a 4" square. (I'll explain variations later.)

Cut a 4" square from each corner

Step 3

Cut the fringe. After some experimentation, I found that 1" wide fringe seems to work best. This is a fairly forgiving project, so if some pieces are a little bigger, that's ok. It makes it easier to cut if you take a piece of paper or scrap of fabric and use it as a template. (I used a scrap from an earlier blanket.

Cut the fringe all the way around the entire blanket, cutting through both layers of fleece at the same time.


Cut fringe 1" wide around the entire blanket

Step 4

Starting at one corner, tie EVERY OTHER set of fringe. (The first blanket I did, I tied all the fringe on the first time around, and it didn't turn out nearly as even.) Tie the knots close to the blanket, but being careful not to pull too tight, or it will pull the blanket out of shape. All I can tell you is that this takes more practice than it does explanation.

Tie Every Other fringe, while the blanket is still flat on the floor.


Tie close to the blanket - a double "overhand knot"

Tighten the knot, being careful not to pull the blanket out of shape

Here is one place where you can have a bit of variation. Depending on how exactly you tighten the knots, they will set differently when you're done. It's subtle, but it can make a difference. I found that I liked the look if I tie the knots so that they're laying flat with the off-side color fringe pointing up onto the blanket when the knot is tightened.

Step 5

Turn the blanket over.