Quick and Easy Minky Baby Blanket

Baby hand grasping blue and green minky blanket

Are you in need of a quick and easy baby gift for this upcoming holiday season?

My friends have been going through a baby boom. It seemed like everywhere I looked someone was having a baby! I wanted to gift them something special but at the time I was heavily pregnant and I could barely muster the energy to stand most days. I needed something super simple I could whip up that still looked gorgeous.

Curled baby feet poking out from under pink and purple minky blanket

That’s where this quick and easy minky baby blanket comes in. You literally take a super cute cotton print or panel and slap it together with some silky soft minky and voila – easy baby gift!

Because so simple it’s great for beginning sewers. All you need to know how to do is sew a straight line!

Supplies

1 yard minky fabric
1 yard cotton print or panel
Coordinating thread

How to Make a Minky Blanket

1. Square up your cotton. When you purchase fabric it is rarely cut perfectly straight so you need to trim the edges to form a nice rectangle shape. You want all the edges to be 90° angles, and if you’re using a panel you want the design centered. Since I used a mandala panel for one of mine, I folded the mandala design in half then trimmed away the uneven edges.

Mandala panel folded in half lengthwise — I folded the mandala in half to center the design

Uneven edges of blue dyed fabric — These uneven edges were trimmed 90°

2. If desired, round the corners. You can use a plate or something round as a guide. You can leave the corners square if you wish – I just find that rounded corners are easier to turn and sew.

Plate used as template for rounding blanket corners

3. Place the minky under the cotton with the right sides together. Trim away the excess minky. (Read here for lots of tips and tricks to working with minky.)

4. Pin every couple inches. Minky is slippery, so it’s better to overpin! Leave a gap several inches wide on one side.

5. Sew a ½” hem remembering to leave the several inch gap open. Make sure you backstitch at the start and the stop. To make corners easier to turn cut off the point for squared corners to reduce the fabric bulk or add snips into the fabric on curves (don’t cut through the stitching!).

Stitching on rounded corner of baby blanket

6. Pull the blanket through the gap to turn right side out. Put your arm into the hole to poke the corners out from the inside.

7. Pin the edges down, taking special care to pin the hole shut. Starting just in front of the hole, sew ¼” away from the edges. Backstitch where the stitching connects to secure the thread.