Personalized Fleece Blankets

I love to sew. By 'sew' I mean easy, not complicated, straight line and maybe a zig zag stitch sewing.

So when all my friends and family were having kids of their own, I really wanted to make them a unique gift that was personalized but not too difficult. You always see the baby blankets with the child's name embroidered on it but I only have a basic sewing machine that does not do any sort of embroidery.   I got the idea to stitch a child's name to a fleece blanket at a local craft fair about 10 years ago.  It looked simple enough, so I thought I would give it a shot.  Well, it is extremely simple and the reaction to these blankets has been amazing.

Materials Needed:
Non-pilling fleece blanket (the blankets I use are large..probably double bed size. You can use crib size or any other size you want)
Fleece fabric in accent colors
Permanent clear drying fabric glue
Thread in color of blanket and every color of accent fabric

Method:
Start with a pre-made fleece (non-pilling) blanket. I personally love coral fleece but any type will do. 

For the design use lighter weight polar fleece in matching colors for the design.  I cut all the letters, shapes etc. out and lay them out on the blanket and move them around until I get it exactly how I like it.  There is no right or wrong with how they need to be placed...you will know what looks right. Be sure to use the right side of the fleece. Some time it is hard to tell but other times it is really easy.

Use a permanent fabric glue (that dries clear) and lightly secure all the design/accents pieces onto the blanket.

Once the glue is dry, do a zig zag stitch around all the glued on designs to secure the edges of the fabric and to give a finished look.  The setting I use for the zigzag stitch is wider (6.5 width) and longer (1-1.25 length) than recommended by my machine.

Use the bobbin thread in a color that matches the blanket (so the blanket looks ok on the backside) and then the top thread to match each individual design piece.

I don't know if this will make sense but I start sewing the fabric that is the furthest back in the design first so that I can go over the start/stop points with the next color.  The constant thread change is time consuming but I think it is worth it.

Note:I have tried in the past to use Fusible webbing/Wonderunder to adhere the design but it does not work.   I also do not use anything else between the blanket and design.

Here are a few of the many blankets I have made in the past. I am sorry the images are not great, I never planned on posting them on a blog :) .

 

 

Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to explain better.

Please see the Parties I've Linked To page for some amazing Linked parties I have participated in.