Learn how to make a fleece tie blanket. Making a tie blanket with fleece is really fun and requires no sewing.

Making blankets with fleece

Fleece is such a wonderful type of fabric to make blankets with. It’s so soft and warm, the perfect combination for a cozy blanket. Fleece is available in many prints and colors. It does not fray easily, you do not need to sew a seam around it. It’s also stretchy!

Basically, you could go to the fabric store and buy fleece and use it as a blanket. That’s what my Mom did for us about 30 years ago. 

We went to a fabric store and my sisters and I fell in love with some fleece fabric. My Mom bought some for us and we used them as blankets. We never hemmed them, we just left them as is. We still have them to this day, my favorite warm blanket! Pretty cool, right?

If you do want to add a fun to the edges of the blanket, you can fold the edge and sew it with a cute seam.

You can also make a no sew fleece blanket, which involves cutting the edge of the fleece and tie knots all the way around. So cute and fun!

When my friend Sheila posted a photo of beautiful yards of fabric she bought to make a throw blanket, I knew I had to buy some too to make a no sew fleece tie blanket!

If you are wondering how many yards of fleece for a full size tie blanket; I used 2 yards of anti-pill fleece print and 2 yards of anti-pill fleece solid.

How to make a tie blanket with fleece

Supplies:

• Anti-pill fleece fabric 2 yards of fleece print
• Anti-pill fleece fabric 2 yards of fleece solid
• Scissors
• Acrylic ruler
• Sewing pins
• Acrylic square ruler (optional)
• Self-healing cutting mat (optional)
• Rotary cutter (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1: Start by checking the anti-pill polar fleece for any selvage edges. Usually fabric has a selvage edge on two sides of the fabric.

How to cut off selvage edge from fleece:

Put the fleece fabric on a self-healing cutter mat.

Place an acrylic ruler on the dotted line and cut the selvage off using a rotary cutter or a good pair of sharp scissors in a straight line. If you are using a rotary cutter and it’s not cutting well, change your rotary blade to a new one, it will cut much smoother.

Use the dotted line as a cutting guide.

Step 2: Place both pieces of fabric together with the back sides together aka wrong side (the correct sides aka right side pointing outwards) on a flat surface. If you do not have a table that is big enough, the floor works great.

Don’t pull or stretch the fabric, just let it lay/drape as it pleases so that the sides of the blanket are flat.

Step 3: Pin together the two pieces of fleece, about 6″ from the edge and all the way around.

As you pin the fabric together, you may notice that they aren’t exactly the same size, don’t worry you can trim off the extra fabric during Step 4.

Step 4: Inspect the fleece to make sure they are both the same size, if not trim them until they are the same size. (Trimming away the selvage edges may have made a piece smaller than the other.)

Make sure the fleece measures a whole number on each side (no half inches, etc..) Trim it if necessary.

Step 5: Use a ruler to cut out a 5″ square out of each corner. This is to make the tie blanket corners.

If you have a quilting square ruler, you can use that.

P.S. Always use a self healing mat when using a rotary cutter.

I kept the corner squares pieces of fleece fabric I cut in case they could come in useful for another sewing project.

Step 6: To make the fringed edge, cut 5″ strips at every 1″ on the edge of each side of the fleece. 

You can use a yardstick or washi tape as a guide by lining it up with the 5″ corners. Cut up to the 5″ line.

You can also do as I did and use a square ruler and ruler and measure as you go.

I placed the long ruler at 5.5″ high, then I placed the square ruler on the edge, and used my rotary cutter to cut the fabric, stopping when I reached the ruler, which gave me a 5″ strip. I kept moving the square ruler to the next inch line and using my rotary cutter.

P.S. You’ll see that at first I placed my ruler on the 5″ line, but it was making my strips a little short because my rotary cutter would stop as soon as it got close to the ruler. I then moved it up to 6″ and would stop cutting when I reached the 5″ line. However, I noticed that if I put the ruler at the 5.5″ line, once my rotary cutter touched the ruler, they were exactly 5 inch strips.

If you do not have a rotary cutter, you can use good fabric scissors. I found the rotary cutter to be super quick, easy, and it cut through both layers of fleece easily.

Step 7: Repeat Step 6 until all four sides are cut with fringes.

Step 8: Time to start tying the fleece together with knots to make it into a tied fleece blanket!

Grab a pair of fringe strips, make a loop, insert the end of the strips inside the loop, and pull tight.

P.S. You could also tie them together with a regular knot too, it would give it a more fringe look.

Continue doing this until all the fringe pairs are tied together in knots.

Remove the sewing pins as you go.

This is the back of the knot blanket.

DIY Fleece Tie Blanket

Oh how I love how the tie blanket turned out!

Are you wondering how long it took to make?

The entire blanket took about a day to make. Tying the fleece blanket together took about 2 hours.

It sounds long, but it really doesn’t feel long…. I found it very relaxing to do.

I love that it’s huge blanket and it’s so comfy!

It’s big enough for my family to cuddle together on the couch. However, one of my daughters took it and is using it as her comforter on her bed! I guess that means I need to get more fleece fabric to make another one!

I think I may make a blanket ladder to display the blanket when we aren’t using it. That’s if my daughter gives me the fleece blanket back or if I make another one. Or possibly make a big rope basket like the rope bowl I made, they would be really cool!

Have you ever made a fleece tie blanket before? Do you like to make big ones or smaller ones?

If you haven’t made one before, I hope I have inspired you to make one! It’s such a gratifying project and it makes a great gift too!

Now that I completed a no sew blanket, I’m thinking I should sew something! I don’t think I have done any sewing projects since the pencil case with lining which believe it or not is quite an easy project! Oups!

Have a wonderful day!

Christine