Fleece blankets are ideal for Project Linus, because they are so soft. This is a set of instructions created by my aunt when she was in town working with Project Linus.
Fleece comes in a wide variety of colors and prints that are popular with children. The blankets are easy to make up and are a fun project to do with children and teenagers.
Decide which ends of the blanket will be fringed and which sides will be hemmed. You can fringe all four sides if you would like, but hemming two edges makes a little bit bigger blanket. Before hemming, cut the fringe. The depth of the fringe cuts can be 4-7”. On a small baby blanket, a short fringe is nicer. A large blanket can handle a deep fringe. I usually cut 5.5” deep. Fringes shorter than that are not as easy to tie. The fringe cuts should be about 1” – 1.25”apart. Try to cut as straight as you can, but things don’t have to be perfect. Once the fringe is tied, it is hard to see mistakes. You can use various techniques for cutting. A rotary blade and cutting mat with straight edge are great tools. If you are doing the project with a child, it could be helpful to mark a row of dots 1” apart and 5.5” in from the edge before using a scissors to cut. After cutting the fringe, you can also get creative and angle cut the bottom edge of each fringe if you would like.
On each of the 2 edges that are not fringed, a simple hem will be sewn. Determine the right and wrong side of the fleece. For the most part, it doesn’t matter, but sometimes there are words printed in the pattern. Turn the edge over about 1⁄2” to the wrong side. There is no need to hem into the fringe, so start the sewing at the top end of the first fringe cut and go all the way to the other end of the blanket where the other fringe starts. You can use a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch.
Tie each fringe with an overhand knot, pushing the knot way to the top. Make the knot tight, but avoid stretching out the tail. If it does get a little stretched out, you can pat it back into shape. When you are finished with the whole edge, you might notice that the fringe side seems tight and needs stretching. Just give it a little pull from both ends. Once you are finished, you may need a lint roller on both the blanket and yourself.
