You’ll need:
• 1 1?3 yards each of two complimentary fleece colors and/or patterns
• Heavy-duty fabric scissors
• Marker or chalk
• Ruler
• 5-inch square paper
Prep
1. Lay the two pieces of fleece on top of each other with the wrong sides facing. (The “wrong side” is the one that looks less finished.) Make sure the “stretch” of both pieces is going in the same direction.
2. Trim both sides of the fabric so both the top and the bottom layers are exactly the same size. Lay the cut-off strips aside to use in step 4. And don’t worry if your shape isn’t perfect—you’ll never be able to tell!
Assemble
3. Place the 5-inch paper square in one corner of the fabric and hold it down while tracing around it with a marker. Then use scissors to cut through both layers along the marker line. Repeat on the other three corners.
4. Take one of the long fleece strips that you trimmed off the edges in step 2 and lay it onto your fabric 5 inches in from the edge as a guide.
5. Decide how wide you want your fringe. (For chunky fringe, make your cuts 1 to 1 ½ inches apart. For linguini-like fringe, make your cuts ½ to ¾ inches apart.) Use a ruler and scissors to mark and begin cutting perpendicularly through both layers along one edge of the blanket, stopping 5 inches in at the fleece strip. Continue cutting fringe in this manner around the entire perimeter of the blanket.
6. Tie the top layer of fringe to the bottom layer of fringe all the way around the blanket, using one of the two methods detailed below. Note: You’re not going crazy—due to the knit of the fleece, two of the sides are significantly more stretchy and easier to tie.
Finish
7. After you’ve tied all of the knots, pick up the blanket and hold it up by two corners. The knotting sometimes bunches things up, so gently tug on all of the sides and corners to get your blanket into a nice rectangular shape. If you hear teensy ripping noises, no worries.
Excerpted from Crafty Mama Makes 49 Fabulous, Foolproof (Baby & Toddler) Projects. Copyright © 2008 by Abby Pecoriello. Used by permission of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York. All rights reserved.
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