Angry Julie Monday

A friend gave Angry Kid a skull-themed Fleece Tie Blanket a little over two years ago.  He is OBSESSED with it. The tie blanket replaced his white blanket that he  carried around as a baby.  I recently tried to borrow his blanket and use it while watching TV on the couch. He pretty much growled at me and told me to get me own blanket. So I did.

I went to Joann’s and purchased two kinds of fleece fabric. I chose one printed design, Hello Kitty, which was quite expensive, and a solid blue color to match the printed design.  I got two (2) yards of each kind of fleece fabric.  I got Hello Kitty (personal favorite), which is a licensed print.  When you purchase fleece with licensed characters (cartoons, etc.), you will pay a little bit more per yard.  I paid almost $15.  But the theory of “When Mama ain’t happy, no one is happy”…theory works with this. I wanted a Hello Kitty blanket.

So I searched all over the Interwebs for instructions and tutorials on how to make these Fleece Tie Blankets.  I will give you the steps that I used, and then show some link love for the tutorials that I researched.

1.  Lay out fleece fabric.

2.  Place the two pieces of fleece fabric on top of each other so that the edges line up.

3.  Trim of the selvage and overlapping (extra) pieces of fleece fabric.  The Hello Kitty fabric had a white strip with licensing information. They are serious about this stuff.  I used a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler to do this. Ignore my messy cutting mat. Angry Kid uses it for painting also.

4.  Clip the edges of the fleece together with clothes pins. This is a special step for people like me, who turn projects into chaos.  I used to the clothes pins to keep the two pieces of fleece together. You don’t have to do this.

5. Cut 4 inch by 4 inch squares in all four corners of the fleece.

6.  Make the fringes on the edges of the blanket. Cut strips of fringe approximately one inch wide by four inches long around the edges of the blanket. I placed my ruler at the four inch mark to make sure that I cut the strips even. I used my regular scissors to cut the strips of fleece. (No photo)

7.  Tie the knots.  Take the two pieces (different fleece fabrics) of fringe that was cut together and tie a double knot.  Do the same thing for each pair of fringe. (No Photo)

8.  Enjoy the blanket. It took me about three (3) hours to do the blanket. It was my first time and I wanted to be precise.  Plus the phone was ringing, and MTV was on. I was sorta multi-tasking. My husband was shocked that I completed the project. I bought the fabric about three weeks ago.

This blanket would be great for birthday presents, Christmas presents, and baby showers.

*Washing Instructions: Wash the blanket in cold water, and hang dry to keep softness.

Tutorials Used:

My Crazy Wonderful Life: Make a Fleece Tie Blanket-No Sew (YouTube Video)

Fleece Tie Blanket Instructions