Cozy Quick Blankie
When my daughter, Coco, was born, one of my friends gave her an incredible hand-me-down blanket made of cozy, natural cotton fleece on one side and lovely, soft chambray on the other. It is trimmed with ric rac which gives it just the right amount of playfulness. Coco is now three and she still loves this blanket as do I.
Since receiving this hand-me-down, I have always had that nagging feeling that I should probably return it to my friend sooner rather than later. Because Coco and I BOTH love it so much, I knew this would be a sad moment. What a dilemma! Solution- I decided to make one of our own.
I adore the Organic Cotton Sherpa from Michael Miller that I used to make this blanket. It’s cozier than you can imagine and so natural in both look and feel. You’ll love putting it next to your child’s skin. I chose a cheery, lemon yellow shot cotton for the back with tan ric rac for the edge to create a warm, gender neutral palette that everyone will love.
P.S. If you love the print in the background as much as I do, you can see more work by the artist Tess Darrow at her website, Egg Press.
Materials
- 1 yard Rowan Shot Cotton in lemon
- 1 yard Michael Miller Organic Cotton Sherpa in natural
- 4 yards Jumbo 3/4-inch Ric Rac in tan
- 1 small spool Gutermann 100% Cotton Thread colors 1105 and 1640
- Walking foot for your sewing machine
Pattern
This blanket is a 32-inch square when finished.
Pre wash, dry and iron both fabrics.
Cut the shot cotton to a 32-inch square. Cut the fleece to a 31 3/4-inch square (it is smaller than the shot cotton to allow you to see where you are placing the ric rac in the step below). If you need help with this step, please see our Rotary Cutting tutorial.
In order to sew the ric rac inside the seam you must carefully line up the ric rac between the fleece and the cotton. To do this, place the shot cotton on a surface with the right side facing up. Place the ric rac around edge of the cotton with the tips of the ric rac lining up exactly with the edge of the cotton.
See how we’ve turned the corner with the ric rac which makes a neat edge once turned right side out.
Place the fleece on top of the cotton and the ric rac with the right side facing down. Since you have cut the fleece smaller than the cotton, it will expose 1/8-inch of the shot cotton and ric rac on all 4 sides so you can make sure everything is still lined up before sewing.
Pin the cotton, ric rac and fleece together every 3 ric rac tips. In my opinion you can never use too many pins when doing this kind of technique! Another note: I learned to put the pin heads to the left of the sewing machine foot, but its perfectly correct to place them to the right as well.
Make sure you remember to put the walking foot on your machine at this point since the fleece is knit and will stretch and gather without it. The walking foot works wonders!
Now sew a 1/4-inch seam using a basic straight stitch. The goal is for the seam to go exactly down the middle of the ric rac so half is exposed when you turn it right side out.
You will need to leave an opening of approximately 6-inches to turn the blanket right side out. Make sure you back stitch on both sides of the opening to make this area strong when turning right side out.
Snip the corners before turning right side out to avoid bulky, messy looking corners.
Turn blanket right side out. Push out the corners with your finger so that they aren’t too blunt.
At the 6-inch opening, fold both fleece and cotton under to create a 1/4-inch hem, tuck the ric rac into place. Iron the hems so they stay put. At the same time, iron the entire blanket so that the edges are crisp to prepare for top stitching (which makes the ric rac stand out more)
Pin the fleece, ric rac and cotton together.
Sew with the fleece side facing up, and top stitch around all 4 sides. Remember to thread the machine with natural color thread to match the fleece on top and have yellow thread in the bobbin to match the cotton side underneath. I recommend top stitching approximately 1/4-inch in from the edge. When you reach the 6-inch opening that you left to turn the project right side out, top stitch approximately 1/8-inch from the edge so that you are catching the ric rac as you go along. ( I recommend just gradually decreasing the top stitch distance from the edge as you get closer to the opening and then gradually increase the distance after you pass the opening.)
Iron the entire blanket and it’s good to go. Enjoy!
Update 2024: You can explore our current collection of beautiful fabrics and supplies on our page of Sewing Tools + Notions!
Will there be more fleece soon? I would really like to make this blanket. It is so soft and sweet.
Dear Karen,
The fleece is temporarily sold out, but more will be available, hopefully soon. In the meantime, you might also try the organic sherpa from Michael Miller, it is also very, very soft, plush and cozy. You can find it here:
https://www.purlsoho.com//purl/products/fabricdetail/3724
Thank you. I am not sure what sherpa is but I ordered it. I look forward to making a keepsake blankie for my grandson.
Is there another soft non-stretch fabric you could recommend instead of the fleece? Flannel perhaps? My ancient machine has no walking foot and does poorly with stretch fabrics. What a beautiful project.
Dear Alexis, Flannel would be lovely. Normally we have some very beautiful organic flannel from Michael Miller, but we appear to be sold out right now. If you’d like to be notified when we get it in again go to this link and send our online shop an email or give us a call, we’ll let you know as soon as it arrives:
https://www.purlsoho.com/purl/contact
I just made this blanket today and it is adorable! Thank you! I used white cotton flannel (my #1 choice when I first came across this project), blue gingham cotton for the other side, and brown rick rack. I just love it! Thank you for such a simple and old fashioned project.
I have a tip for anyone interested which made it much easier for me to apply the rick rack evenly. Using my sewing machine, I first sewed the rick rack to the right side of the gingham fabric all along the edges, making sure that my stitching was not quite in the center of the rick rack (I just caught all the “points”). I then laid the gingham on top of the flannel, right sides together, and using as a guide the stitching lines from sewing the rick rack, I then stitched the two fabrics together making sure my stitching line was just inside the other stitching line from the rick rack. This prevented any slippage of the rick rack while pinning and stitching it up.
Again, thank you for your creative and very pretty projects. I love your website and blog!
Linda
Hi, I was wondering if a cotton velour might be be suitable. I live in Australia and the store which I was going to source organic fleece from suggested that the cotton velour or a microfleece might be suitable also. I’d appreciate any advice you an offer. Thanks!
Hi Megan,
I think a cotton velour would work but might not have the drape that the organic fleece has. Cotton flannel would work very well as an alternative or any other soft, plush fabric with drape.
Where is the lovely tree print from that’s in the background? It’s so cute.
Yes, like Beth, I'm interested in your pretty tree print. Is this a craft you made, if so I'd love to know more about it and the method. I searched on your blog, for a past post about it, but there were too many results for 'tree' and I wasn't sure how to best narrow it down, so 'thought I'd just ask 🙂
Thank you!
http://www.Andrew-and-Krystal.blogspot.com
Beautiful blanket, but what I really love is the stuffed lamb! Will any instructions/ pattern be available for it?
Please repost the pattern.instructions–the spectacular project fairy seems to have run off with the posting! Thanks!
Hi Jackie and Annie-
Sorry about that! This pattern was split up oddly but it is available here: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/cozy-quick-blankie/
Thank you!
Molly
Im totally making this! All of my 40 something friends are having oopsie babies! LOVE IT! And about that tree- it looks like the leaves are finger prints. We just made one for my sons kindergarten teacher (also pregnant!). It was great! There are some good ideas on pintrest too! Good luck!
Like Annie I love the blanket but love the stuffed lamb more! Is it also a craft project or did it come from a shop? I would love to make one for my friend’s baby. Thanks, Lucie
Hi Lucie-
This is A Steiff Lamb so unfortunately it’s not our pattern to give out! But thanks so much for your kind words about the blanket!
Best-
Molly
Help!
I used an organic print cotton fabric by Robert Kauffman and Michael Miller cotton Sherpa. I pre-washed and dried each fabric once. After making the blanket I washed it again to see how it would fare. As suspected, the cotton and Sherpa don’t lie plum. The Sherpa is generally bigger than the cotton and the cotton has excess fabric along one edge.
Do I consider this part of it’s charm, try to alter it, or remake it. While I was making it I realized this could happen and tried to safeguard but found it difficult.
Any suggestions are appreciated!
Hi Liz-
I’m so sorry to hear this happened to you! I would suggest that you lay the blanket as flat as possible and tie or tack it in the center and a few other places so that it doesn’t shift further, like you would do to tie a quilt: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2009/03/27/tied-quilting/
If this doesn’t seem like it will help please email us a photo directly so we can see exactly what you’re talking about. [email protected]
Thanks for getting in touch!
Molly
Nice post! Blankets are essential for the baby to sleep and keep them warm. These blankets are comfortable enough.