Traditional Fleece Tie Blanket DIY

 Tradition Fleece Tie Blanket instructions

 Materials:

• 1-1 1/2 yards of fleece in two colors or a print and a color- I used 1 1/2 for my 3year old, but for a smaller child 1 yard would be plenty.
• Good scissors or a rotary cutter and mat
• Ruler

 Instructions:

So a traditional Tie Blanket is pretty easy! Simply take your two pieces of fleece and lay them with wrong sides together, smooth out all the wrinkles and then straighten up all your edges. You'll also want to cut off the selvage edges from the longer sides. Don't worry to much about getting an even line because you won't be able to tell when your done anyways. The big thing is to not have it to far off, but with all the edges even.

 Then you will cut out a corner that is 4 inches by 4 inches like you see in the picture below. Just discard those squares or give them to your little one to use for their dolls!

Now you will cut strips in the fabric that are 4 inches long by an inch to an inch and a half wide. I am for an inch, but usually end up cutting them slightly wider.  If you use a rotary cutter and a mat it's a little easier to keep this neat and close to the right size. With scissors I like to lay my measuring tape on top of the fabric to do the measuring. Below you can see where I actually did a combination of measuring tape and mat, but I don't recommend using a metal measuring tape like I did! I totally ruined a new blade because I kept accidentally running into the metal tape and it nicked my blade :(

Once you cut all your strips all the way around you simple take one pair of strips, a top and a bottom strip, and you tie them together. I like to double knot them to make sure they aren't going anywhere! Make sure on the edges that feel a bit stretchier (not sure that's a word lol) that you don't tie them as tight or pull as tight because it will distort the fabric a little. No one will notice though so don't worry if your a bit more aggressive in your knot tying. I also like to watch how I pull my knots so that way the solid fabric I chose shows on the top and the printed strips are at the bottom. Check out my picture below you'll see what I mean!

I chose a lavender for my solid bottom fabric and when I tied my knots I just made sure to pull that towards the top layer so it's visible from the top and adds a nice accent to the blanket.

Once you tie all the way around your blanket you are done!!! Then it's ready for your little one to snuggle underneath, or they make a great gift too! If you want to try a different take on the fleece blanket check out my post on the Braided Fleece Blanket!

My little one being silly snuggling under her blanket! Love me some little piggies!!!

****update: if you wanted to make a baby or toddler sized tie blanket, you could use 1 yard and cut that in half, so you'd have 36 inches by about 29 inches and can make two out of the yard. You would cut 3inch fringe instead of 4 since it's a smaller blanket, so you'd also cut a 3x3 square out of the corners! This is a good size for them to have a lovey as some people like to call it and they can be covered by it or just snuggle it, but it's a better size to be totted around with them!