Written by and pictures by Abby Jasinski |

On December 3rd, 1-3pm at the Henry Carter Hull Library here in town, there was an event that took place for the teens, particularly grades 6-9. The host, Cathleen Cole, was so kind to go and buy all the girls that came, a fleece blanket kit. Below are directions for making a fleece blanket.

You can pick any size of fleece, as long as the two you are working with are the same size. After you decide, you need to gather a pair of fabric cutting scissors, and a ruler. You need to lay down your pieces of fabric on top of each other. You should put the solid color on the bottom, and the design on the top with the more colorful side facing up.

If you want to do both pieces of fabric being the same design or color, make sure to put the more bold side of the fabric for the first piece facing down, and for the second piece of fabric, make sure the more bold side is facing up. Make sure the fabrics are laid down completely flat.

You should cut off the selvage edges, (the edges that prevent raveling of the fabric), because it makes the edges neater and easier to cut the strips. If there are any other edges that are not completely straight, you could snip some fabric off the end to make it easier to work with. Also, don’t cut off too much from the edges, you just need to make all the edges even.

After you complete that, cut a 4×4 square on every corner of the fabric. Make sure to cut both fabrics evenly.

Next, cut 1 and 1/2 inch strips along all the 4 sides of the fabric. Make a note to keep the blankets neat, and aligned nicely with each other in order to keep track of which strips to tie together.

Finally, tie your strips together! You need to make sure that you are tying the strips from both pieces of fleece together, and you are not tying them really tight. Make the knots a little loose and make them a double knot to keep it together. Continue tying around the whole blanket, and if its bunching up a lot, just stretch it out gently after you complete the tying.

After you have completed all of these steps, you shall have your own fleece-tie blanket to keep you warm in the winter. This blanket is so useful! You can use it when you go to events that take place outside during the winter or fall; you can warm up by the fireplace while drinking hot chocolate, or even use it as a sleeping blanket!

I hope you are able to have fun while making the blankets, and to make it even more fun, invite some friends over for a sleepover, and you can make fleece-tie pillows! You make the pillows the same way, however, you just use smaller pieces of fabric! For more fun events, you would possibly like to attend, visit the library here in town!