DIY Gift Idea: No-Sew Fleece Doll Blanket

Thanks to Fabric Wholesale Direct for sponsoring this post.

My daughter will be five at the end of next month and she loves dolls. Over the past couple of years she has gotten some dolls as well as doll accessories, like this cute doll cabin.

This year, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at making some doll clothes and bedding to gift her. I went online to Fabric Wholesale Direct’s website and found a wide variety of fabrics to choose from. They have everything from burlap to faux fur to chiffon and everything in between. I thought a fleece blanket would be a perfect addition to the cabin so I decided to look at the fleece options. Living in the Chicago suburbs and being a huge fan of football, I had to go with the fleece fabric to rep my favorite team– the Chicago Bears! The Chicago Bears Plaid NFL Fleece Fabric was perfect. I liked that the fleece was very thick, the colors were vibrant, and that the fleece wouldn’t pill.

The first thing I did was measure out two pieces of fabric. I took the small thin blanket her doll cabin came with and used it as a guide to cut out a couple pieces that were a bit larger and would allow me to cut around the edges to make the popular no-sew tie fleece blanket. You’ll notice the edges aren’t straight because I couldn’t find my scissors so I was using my daughter’s blunt tip scissors from her craft table (0/100 don’t recommend using toddler scissors to cut fleece!) The good news is that once the blanket is made you can’t really tell the edges I cut are uneven!

Once the two pieces were cut out I put one on top of the other, cut 1 inch strips around the outside of the rectangles of fleece, and then took one tie from the top piece and one from the bottom and tied them together with double knots. (So many detailed tutorials exist online for these blankets so if you’ve never made one check them out because they are so easy to make!)

I got a yard of fabric and have fleece left over, so I plan to make a pillow to go with the blanket and then want to make the doll matching pajama pants with it as well. I thought about trying to make a Bears football onesie pajama but that might be a bit out of my skill set!

I think she’s going to be really excited to have some new items for her dolls and, best of all, I can tell her they are made with love! Have you ever made DIY items for your child’s favorite dolls? I’d love to hear about it on social, if so. You can share with me on Facebook or Instagram :)