“He’s All Boy” Baby Blanket Tutorial

Download rounded corner pattern HERE.

Materials needed: 3 Large Men’s Flannel Shirts,  1 yd plain cotton (or lightweight cotton batting) & 1 yd Rose Swirl Minky Fabric.

For matching baby cap tutorial, click HERE.

Cut bias strips of fabric out of the back of each flannel shirt.  I cut 5″ strips out of two of the shirts and 2″ strips out of the third.

Cut a 30″ square of plain cotton fabric (or a lightweight cotton batting if you want a blanket with more weight).  Use the corner pattern to round all four corners.

Loosely arrange the stripes on top of your cut plain cotton rounded square to a pattern of your liking.  Strips will need to be pieced together to be big enough to cover the fabric base. You may need to cut more strips from you shirt using the sleeves of front.

Sew loose strips together as needed using either a clean seam or an overlapped, raw seam like in the picture. 

Lay a loose strips on base fabric, pin and sew one strip at a time.

Lay each strip on the blanket base, overlapping at least 1/2 the previous strip and sew.

Once all the strips have been sewn onto base, don’t worry about the base fabric puckering a little.  The bias cut strips will stretch and retract a little.

Cut off excess length of flannel strips to even up with blanket base.

Lay finished blanket top on top of minky fabric, WRONG sides together.  Measure backing 2 1/2″ larger around all sides of blanket front.

Cut out minky backing as marked.

Fold over backing 1″. Then fold over again 1 1/2″ onto blanket front, pinning into place.

At the rounded corners, fold over twice as on straight sides but place many little tucks into the minky and pin in place to make the corners .

Sew 1/2″ to 3/4″ from inside edge to catch backing and not just fur.  Sew around entire blanket.

You’re finished!  This pieced flannel shirt blanket will just get better and better with each wash as the raw edges soften up.

Paired with the “He’s All Boy Cap”, the blanket makes an excellent gift.

You can also use the same backing technique with a piece of solid fabric for the top.

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{ 2 trackbacks }

Making Stuff: Men’s Flannel Shirts to Patchwork Baby Blanket | This Mama Makes Stuff
March 24, 2011 at 2:32 pm
“Little Man” Baby Gift | twodaloo
June 10, 2012 at 3:02 pm

{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }

Emily March 3, 2011 at 7:09 pm

I love how manly this blanket looks and how snuggly it must be! Great pictures too!

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Sara March 3, 2011 at 10:24 pm

I love how this turned out – so beautiful and of course, it’s ALL BOY 🙂

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McKenzie March 4, 2011 at 6:08 pm

Thanks — this is way cool! I loved your skinny pants tutorial from last year and glad you did “boy month” again!

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Lana March 6, 2011 at 11:56 am

This is sooooo beautiful! It is so hard to find cute Baby Boy gifts and this one is super cute!

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Cheryl March 6, 2011 at 3:27 pm

What a beautiful blanket and cap. I really love that buffalo check with the minkie. It really is all boy. Thanks for sharing your tutorial.

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Rob March 6, 2011 at 7:38 pm

Love this!!! Will be running out for minky and plaid flannel first thing in the morning:)

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Ashlee March 12, 2011 at 10:19 am

Aaaah! This blanket is absolutely stunning and makes me want to raid closets for flannel shirts NOW! Wonderful tutorial, thank you so much! 🙂

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Melany March 14, 2011 at 1:34 pm

LOVELOVELOVE. Coincidentally, I’m actually working on a blanket for a baby boy right now! I used old cotton men’s shirts. I’m totally going to use this minky back method for the other side. Thanks for the tutorial.

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KT March 20, 2011 at 8:25 pm

LOVE it. I’ll be doing this for sure.

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Lisa March 24, 2011 at 4:22 pm

I love this! Thanks for the tutorial!

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Danielle April 20, 2011 at 11:40 am

How important is cutting the flannel on a bias? I purchased yardage of a few flannels I want to use in my sons nursery and plan to get started on this soon. Making sure I can just cut it straight, before I get to work. Thanks!!

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

You can cut the strips straight, but you should piece them like a normal quilt, sewing seams right sides together. With the bias cut strips, you can overlap them as I did in the tutorial and leave the raw edge out without terrible fraying. Good luck!

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Danielle Reply:

I wanted to let you know that I finally finished this quilt for my baby boy’s room today! It took me ages to decide on the widths and pattern for the blanket but it went together rather quickly once I got started actually sewing. I used 5 different flannels, quilt batting and diamond cuddle fabric for the backing. I made is about 45″x60″ so it will fit his crib once its converted to a toddler bed. I LOVE it and hope he does too!

I’m going to try to link to a pic or two…

Thank you for the inspiration!

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Danielle Reply:

http://tinyurl.com/7zuwj46
http://tinyurl.com/7fq34p4

Hope that works and thanks again!

Tasha May 6, 2011 at 9:46 pm

Super Cute! Off to beg my dad for some of his old flannels!

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Kris May 25, 2011 at 10:26 am

Hi just went to print off. Just wanted to make sure that we have to pay on scribd to print this or was there another way to print this. thanx your pattern is so cute.

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

No, please never pay on Scribd. They’ve changed their policy recently so I will be slowly moving all my pdf download’s so they are self-hosted on this site. This one should be fixed now!

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Jen June 20, 2011 at 11:18 am

LOVE this! I love how you did the edging with that rose minky. I will be trying that with the blanket I am going to make my sister’s baby. I am so glad you used the rose minky for a boy. My SIL is having a boy and I was worried it would be too girly, but I think it looks perfect on the ones you made!

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chris June 20, 2011 at 7:37 pm

This is just too clever and adorable.

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sylvia Wycinsky September 4, 2011 at 6:09 pm

Love this blanket! I am going to make it for my grandson. Do you need to attach the Minky and the Flannel sides together besides the edge?

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

I didn’t attach the two layers other than at the edges and it works out fine. You could do some hand or machine quilting in the center if you wanted to though. Good luck! He’s a lucky little baby to have a grandma that can sew for him!

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Kandi September 29, 2011 at 8:20 am

Great idea! I have several friends due in the next few months, so everybody’s getting a version of this blanket, it’s so cute!

I was just wondering if you remember what the “official” color is of the Minky rose swirl you used? I’m having trouble finding neutral colored Minky in my area (and I love that look too much to use something else) and might have to order it. . . the color you used looks like it would go perfectly.

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

I think the official name is camel: http://www.fabric.com/creativity-headquarters-fabrics-for-throws-and-blankets-minky-fabric-minky-swirl-fabric-minky-cuddle-rose-camel.aspx

Good luck with your project!

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Kristen October 20, 2011 at 8:49 am

love Love LOVE!

I will so be making this for my son! Thank you so much for sharing!!

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Shari October 29, 2011 at 12:02 pm

Gonna make this for my one year old to keep him snuggly in his crib this winter! Thanks for the pattern/idea.. found on Pinterest! 🙂

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Aimee November 4, 2011 at 5:54 pm

I just got done making this for my little man due in a few weeks, it is so cute! Thanks for the tutorial!

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

Your welcome! Good luck with the new arrival!

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Emily November 22, 2011 at 6:01 pm

I love the solid piece of fabric with the minky background! I’ve been trying to find something similar- is it flannel?

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

Someone gave that to me as a gift a few years ago. I have no idea where she got it. It is a gorgeous organic cotton buffalo check.

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Amie Reply:

I have been searching for the grey and black buffalo, but came across this if you are still interested: http://www.etsy.com/listing/72345412/organic-cotton-flannel-like-buffalo

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

The grey and black buffalo check was a thrifted men’s flannel shirt. But i am so glad you found this ivory/camel buffalo check! I was lucky enough to be given a piece of this fabric a while ago (I made a hat, blanket and pants out of it) but I haven’t been able to find anymore. It is a BEAUTIFUL fabric.

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Katie @ On the Banks of Squaw Creek December 14, 2011 at 1:26 pm

This is so adorable! I really want to make one for my boys!

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Dakota January 3, 2012 at 5:31 pm

Hi There! I am making this blanket (btw, sooo cute!) for a friend who is expecting a little one in a few weeks. I was wanting to know what color and where you got your minky fabric. I have been looking at different sites, and the colors I’m seeing look a little dark. It would make my day if you could let me know soon! :o) Thanks!

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

I think the minky rose fabric I used for the pieced blanket was called “camel”. I got it at a fabric jobber here in LA. IF bet you could find it online by googling “camel rose minky”. Good luck and you have a lucky friend!

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chole January 9, 2012 at 11:32 am

hi Carrie! I just adore your blanket!

I made a version of it and blogged about it on my (new) blog. Thought you might like to see it.

http://cholemine.blogspot.com/2012/01/before-i-blogged-my-version-of-hes-all.html

Thanks for your endless inspiration!

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Tamah January 12, 2012 at 8:08 pm

I can’t wait to make this blanket. My grandfather died 6 months ago. When he was living he always wore flannel shirts in the winter. My grandmother recently gave me all of those shirts. I now know exactly what I’m going to do with all of the shirts. Instead of giving this to a little boy I’ll be keeping it for myself and remember him every time I use it. Thanks for this tutorial.

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:

How awesome is that blanket going to be!

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Jessica February 15, 2012 at 11:41 pm

You need to sell this blanket!! I can’t even sew in a button! 🙁

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Cathy
Twitter: embeshop
February 20, 2012 at 8:44 am

Thank you for this tutorial! I just made a blanket for my son and love how it turned out. It is super warm and I love cuddling with him under it (even though my feet stick out! haha) I added a personalized touch by sewing his initial on it. You can see a few pictures here if you like. http://embeshop.com/2012/02/fluffy-blanket-with-initial/

Thanks again!

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Ashley May 5, 2012 at 6:35 pm

Ok, this may be a really dumb question but I have never made anything…much less sewn anything. But as I started this blanket, I’m realizing that a 30″ square blanket seems small. I know it’s for a baby, but will the really be big enough? It is 30″ by 30″, right?! I just want to make sure I’m doing this right 🙂

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Lu September 22, 2012 at 5:42 pm

I came across your site from Pinterest! I am expecting a boy and want to make this, but I was curious if I use just a solid fabric for the top, do I still use the plain cotton or lightweight cotton batting? Silly question, I’m just not that experienced of a sewer 🙂 thank you!

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Katie B October 16, 2012 at 6:13 pm

I just made one from my grandson, Ford…it is so soft and cuddly, can’t wait for him to use it! Thanks for such N easy, fun sewing project!

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Karen O October 23, 2012 at 6:43 pm

Thank you for posting this. I’m making two of these one for my nephew and a slightly larger one for my husband who thinks it looks so comfy and warm.

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Chelsie November 7, 2012 at 1:38 pm

Thanks for the tutorial! I found this on pinterest and here is the one I made: https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/481737_10151538680914896_1821276416_n.jpg

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Terry December 8, 2012 at 8:19 pm

Cool idea…and that baby is BEAUTIFUL!!!

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Lisa April 26, 2013 at 11:36 am

I would love to say that I could pull this off but that would be a lie:) Instead, I will share it so that others who are more talented than I can make one for a cherished family member.

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yanik silver February 11, 2014 at 3:18 am

This is a topic that’s close to my heart… Many thanks! Where are
your contact details though?

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