Easy DIY Baby Gift: How to Make A Baby Blanket

Recently, a few of my friends started to have children. I’m almost 30. I’m at that weird age where a third of my friends are recently engaged, Another third are recently married. And the last third have been married for a few years and are starting to pop out kids.

It’s bizarre to me in the sense that I just feel like I was in college, having fun on the beach, without a care in the world. Where has the time gone? It seems like my social media feeds all of a sudden went from posts of parties, to posts of weddings and babies in the blink of an eye.

Yet, if I were in this spot 30 years ago, the social expectations would have been much different. Those of my friends that are just now starting to have kids, would have had them 5 or 6 years ago. And me, just getting married at 29 – with no plans for kids in the near future – forget it! I would be considered a spinster without a hope. It seems so weird to think that people were expected to bring others into the world before they even had a chance to experience it on their own.

But yes, times have certainly changed in regards to families and family planning. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, where the average age for a woman to have a child is in her thirties. Although this is high for the nation, the national average age for a woman to have a child has gone up by 5 years (from 21 to 26) since the 1970s.

But age is a beautiful thing. It affords us the time to grow in our careers, plan for the future, and get exactly what we want out of life. It also gives us an appreciation for the things we have, and the ability not to take for granted what we are given. We get to see the world, experience life, and even get to make a few mistakes without it having an effect on our offspring.

So when my friends started to have children, I saw them as little gifts. They had planned, hoped, and prayed for this moment, and I was going to celebrate it with them.

My Baby Blanket Inspiration

My first girlfriend to have a baby was back in October of this year, a little girl. I was so excited I was going to get to meet her on my trip home for Thanksgiving, just 6 weeks after her birth. I had sent my friend a few things off her registry in preparation for her baby’s arrival, but I wanted to make her something special. Something her baby girl could cherish as she grew older.

Having my older cousin’s children nearby has afforded me the unique opportunity to not only dote on children, but to see their likes and dislikes as they grow. One thing is for certain, nothing grabs a child’s attention for too long. However, I did notice that both my cousin’s children have special blankets they cannot sleep without. They are their security when they feel scared, and their comfort when they are sick. They’ve had their blankets since the time they were born, and they’re going to treasure them until they unravel.

I wanted to make that for her. A special blanket that her daughter could treasure as she grew (well, that was the hope, at least). But did I know how to make a baby blanket? I was sure going to try!

I started my adventure again, at Joann’s fabrics. Little known fact for those that don’t frequent the store weekly like I do: they have the cutest quilted baby fabrics! Yes, pre-quilted. Some of them even have quilted on animals, balloons, and dolls. They are soft and plush and perfect for little babies. Plus, they save you a heck of a lot of time quilting yourself. I found a cute purple, green, and pink pattern that I matched with some soft purple fabric for the backside, and began my baby blanket adventure.

I soon realized how easy making a blanket was. Below, I show you how I made mine, and how to make a baby blanket for yourself.

Steps to Make A Baby Blanket

The Necessary Supplies:

Step 1:

Take your solid color fabric (the ¼ yard) and put it face down on your work surface. Then, take your letter stencils and fabric pen, and trace the baby’s name backwards on the back side of the fabric.
* You want to make sure the fabric is upside down and the letters are backwards, when tracing, so that any markings made by the fabric pen will end up on the bottom side of the letter when you sew it on.

how to make a baby blanket

Step 2:

Take each letter and place it exactly where you want it on the front side of the quilted fabric (I put the baby’s name in the lower, left corner). Make sure there is plenty of room for your seams when you sew.

Once you have exact placement, take your fabric glue or glue gun, and dab tiny bits of glue on the back of the letters so they’ll stay in place while you’re sewing.

how to make a baby blanket

Step 3:

Take your needle and thread (color matching the color of the letter fabric) and cross stitch (X stitch) around the edges of each letter.
* I did this step by hand because the letters were too delicate to put under my sewing machine. If you have an embroidery machine, you can embroider the edges down instead of hand stitching.

Step 4:

Once the baby’s name is completely sewn onto the front of the quilted fabric, take your quilted fabric and your soft fabric and put them together so the fronts of each fabric faces the other (and the reverse sides are up).

how to make a baby blanket

Step 5:

Thread your sewing machine and sew a simple line stitch around the edges of the 2 fabrics, sewing them together. Make sure to leave 6” of one edge unsewn, but sew everything else together.

Step 6:

Once you’ve gotten to where there are only 6” left to sew, take the fabric off your sewing machine, grab it from the inside, and turn it right side out.

Step 7:

Take your needle and thread (same color you used to sew the edges of the fabric together), and make a ladder stitch on the 6” edges of the fabric that are left to sew together. Make sure to leave the stitch loose until the very end.

how to make a baby blanket

Step 8:

Once you’ve made a lose ladder stitch on the remaining fabric, pull the thread of the ladder stitch tight! Waiting until the end to pull the stitch tight pulls the fabric inward, allowing for a perfect seam without any stitches being visible from the outside of the blanket.

how to make a baby blanket

Voi la! Now, your DIY baby blanket is complete.

Not only did I make one for Miss Bari, but I used this same technique to make a matching one for little Miss Courtney (remember Kendra who I threw the baby shower for? Yep, Courtney is hers). As you can tell from the picture above, it’s perfect for a sunny park day. Courtney approves!

Variations on the Baby Blanket

Now I’ve shown you how to make a baby blanket. It’s quick, quilted, and personalized. But that might not be your vision. As long as you know how to sew 2 pieces of fabric together (steps 4-8 above) you can make any blanket you want, for anybody. The world is your oyster (and the fabric store is your best friend).

The quilted fabrics tend to be the most expensive (running between $20-30 per yard). You can save some quick cash if you go with a fleece fabric instead. They’re just as soft, and they often have super cute prints you can play with.

Also, with the personalization, you can get creative or you can omit it altogether. Play with different stencils and fonts, or just cross stitch the name completely in thread onto the front of the fabric.

However you decide to make your baby blanket, I’m sure the child you’re making it for will treasure it just as much as the parents appreciate the love that was put into it.

And once again,  here is a quick list of the supplies you’ll need to DIY:

Comments

  1. says

    Hi, nice blog. The good creativity is shown by you. It’s a good idea to make baby blanket stylish. Nice example of creativity. Keep sharing more creative ideas like this.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *