DIY Baby Blanket

Do you know anyone having a baby this summer?  If you do, this is the perfect gift to make and give to a sweet summer babe. These lightweight blankets are 100% cotton stamped with fabric paint.  They will keep a baby cozy but nice and cool during the hot months.

You will Need:

-1 meter of lightweight  cotton fabric per blanket (mine is from Royal Fashions in Abbotsford, $2/meter!)

-some sort of fabric printing paint, either for block printing or screen printing, I have both Permaset and Speedball

-a stamp, either hand carved or store bought

-small paint brush

-a small piece of foam

This is for the Anchor blanket.  Blue fabric paint, and a $1.50 stamp from Michaels

Red + white = pink!  Hand carved bow stamp

 Use your paint brush to paint a small area of the foam with the paint.  You will have to go over it a few times.  This is basically like making your own ink pad, but instead of paper ink its for fabric!

 Make sure the area is big enough to fit the stamp

 When you stamp the paint with your stamp, make sure it covers the whole design.  You might want to test it on some other fabric to make sure it has the coverage you want.  I had to dab mine numerous times to get a consistent coat.

 Start on the left top corner and work down in rows moving towards the right.

The pattern I made ended up being about 5" apart in every direction.  It fit perfect on 1 meter of fabric.  You could also do a random design.

Once you have printed it all, follow the instuctions on your jar of fabric paint for setting the paint.  I hemmed my blankets up with a serger edge and a 1 cm folded edge, then threw it in the dryer on a hot setting for 5 minutes.  If you were to wash the blanket without heat setting the paint, it would all wash off.  So don't forget!

Make a couple more! Keep one and give one away!

The fish was also a hand carved stamp, have fun with different shapes and colors too!