No Sew Tie Blankets ~ Living in Momsanity

Good afternoon! Today (rather last night) I decided to make a tie blanket for my 4 month old. A dear friend of ours made one for my little girl, who is now two, when she was a baby. Let me tell you..my daughter is in LOVE with this blanket. For two years it has romped everywhere with her; she can't go to sleep without it or ride in the car for more than 30 minutes. She literally wakes up from naps with her hair plastered to her head because she can't part with her beloved blanket OR her princess comforter.

Blankie Love

Unfortunately we moved so shortly after my son was born, we weren’t able to get a blanket made for him. So I went on a search to find a similar patchwork fabric for boys, which let me tell you was not easy. I thought, it’s no sew! It’ll be easy!! While, yes I did get it accomplished, it was not without a few Momsane moments.
If you would like to do this blanket, all you need is about a yard to 1.5 of two fabrics of choice. I’m a fan of the microfleece or minky fabric as the back so for his I chose a blue that complimented the patchworking.

Materials!

First lay your fabric flat on a surface with the pieces facing away from each other. You would feel kinda foolish if you started tying them and one side of your blanket was backwards. This was especially hard for me- keeping the fabrics together, straight, and taut because I first tried to accomplish this when the minions were up. After the fifth time Brook grabbed the blanket off the table and wrapped it around like a cape, I gave up til after bedtime.

No more littles.

Now at first I didn’t believe I needed to do this, but trust me. You kinda do. On your first corner, after you get everything more or less lined up (don’t worry cuz you’ll probably have to trim some after you get finished with one side), cut at least 3 inches down and 1 inch wide. Discard that first little flap. That way you can start making cuts and you have a nice little corner. If you try not to do this, you’ll end up cutting off a strip just the same. Might as well do it from the get go.

Now you can begin making 1 to 1/12 inch wide, 3 inch cuts. Just keep it going til you are ready for your next corner

1in x 3in. Snip snip.

Now if you want to go ahead and tie, go for it. Just make a knot. tie them together. Then tie them again. You know how to do this, right? I don’t need a lesson do I? You can just tie each of your corners like normal, or if you want a more rounder finish, you can take both “corner” pieces from each side and double tie them together. It makes the knot a pain in the ass to actually get through, but I think it strengthens the corners more. I did it, so whatever

Knottage One whole side down!

Now from here, you’ll have to move to your next side and smooth the fabric out. You may need to snip some because your fabric may have shifted. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Now a little disclaimer for the people working with patchwork like me. If your cut extends between two different patches, you may experience unraveling. Or worse, when you start tying your strips together some of those patches may break apart. I know I was drinking a glass of wine and all, but that didn’t make me Superwoman. So when three of my patched strips ripped off when I secured my knot, I thought maybe I was turning superhuman. The knots still held and all, but if it happened to untie later on down the line (which they will. Brook’s does all the time and I spend ten minutes retying random strips that have come undone) I would have to reattach those patches. But once I sat for a while scratching my head, I realized the issue and I saved any patch pieces that fell off. I also kept scraps from the corners I discarded. That way, in the event something comes untied and I need to make a quick fix, I can sew a patch back on. Could I have sewn the ends and reinforced each patch before tying them together to make sure I wouldn’t need to do this in the future? Sure. But it was 11pm and I’m not Super Stay at Home Mom. That’s way too much effort for this glass of wine. Maybe after 4 I might feel ballsy enough, but then again I might not want to see the outcome. So if you want to be super fantastic, go ahead and sew your strips together to make sure. If you are like me, just wait for those suckers to fall off first and then apply first aid.

That’s it! Once you’ve done all four sides, give everything a little tug because it’ll look a little bunched up and tight at first. I actually did this after each side just to make sure it didn’t get too tight. Then put it through the washer to get all the little fuzzy scraps and strings off, and also to ensure that nothing falls apart. It should look a little something like this!