The Mermaid Blanket

Learn how to sew a mermaid blanket with the help of this step-by-step tutorial.

I am excited to share a fun new project with you today. My baby sister just graduated from high school, so I wanted to make her something special. Something that would be fun to take to college. Something unique and fun to match her personality. Well, I think I succeeded…her gift is one of a kind. What do you think? …

It’s a bright-colored, funky mermaid blanket. Definitely unique. It’s made with 210 pieces of felt layered like shingles, sewn onto a cotton backing and lined on the back with purple fleece. It is a thick, warm blanket with a lot of texture and even more personality. Perfect to brighten up a dorm room.

So here’s how you can sew a mermaid blanket of your own.

Materials

• 4 colors of 72 inch felt, 2/3 yard each (or less if you use more colors)
• Backing fabric (I used a cheap $5 sheet from Wal-Mart)
• Fleece (60×70)
• Rotary cutter and mat
• Sewing machine/thread/scissors

Instructions

Step 1: Cut strips of felt 7 inches wide.

Step 2: Now cut the strips into rectangles 5.5 x 7 inches.

Step 3: Find something hard and round that you can use to cut one edge into a circle shape. I cut through two layers at a time to speed up the process.

Now you should have a big stack of mermaid scales!

Step 4: Draw lines onto your backing fabric. Mine were 2 3/4 inches apart and I used my cutting mat as a straight edge because it was the biggest thing I could find.

Step 5: Lay out your design. I did a chevron pattern, but you could choose any design you want! The first row starts 1/2 inch from the edge. To off-set the pattern, start the second row 2 3/4 inches from where you started the first edge.

Step 6: Now stack up all your rows carefully, so your design pattern stays in order when you are ready to sew.

Step 7: Start sewing! Line up the felt pieces with the lines you drew on the backing fabric and just zip across the top straight edge, grabbing the next piece in the stack until you get to the end of the row.

Here’s a more random pattern I laid out before choosing the chevron design.

Step 8: Sew on the fleece backing just like you would sew a pillow: right sides together, sew around the edges and leave a hole to turn it right-side-out. This step was challenging because cotton and fleece do not mix well. I had to pin like crazy. I easily used 100 pins to make sure the fleece did not stretch or move as I sewed it to the cotton. And I hate pinning. But it was necessary for this project.

I left a 1/2 inch border of the blue backing fabric around the entire blanket so that none of the scales would get caught in the outside seams when I sewed the backing on. Make sense?

Here are a few more pictures of the finished project:

 Perty, ain’t it?!? Very mermaid-ish and funky. Perfect for a college apartment.