Football Baby Blanket

I mentioned that my husband's Eagles jersey got messed up in the laundry? Well, it did. Has a bunch of holes in the backside.

Luckily it was a knockoff anyway and didn't cost very much money. Still, he'd only worn it a couple of times and wanted to recycle it into something else.

So voila. A baby blanket. I'll go through the steps on how I made this sucker. There's not detailed instructions, but if you wanted to recreate it, I think you can follow along.

Actually, I ended up making two blankets. One for my expected son and one for my cousin's brand new baby boy. Only because the jersey had numbers on the front and back. I also got the fleece 30% off and the minky fabric 50% off.

Materials to make 2 blankets:
2 yds fleece
1 yd minky
scrap white fabric
70-80 inches of grosgrain or satin ribbon
green, white, and brown thread

First, wash everything in baby detergent. I use Dreft. Then cut out the numbers from the jersey.

I also used this opportunity to cut all the patches and other decals from the Jersey. Like the two eagles on each sleeve, the NFL logo, and whatever else was attached to the jersey. I could embellish a bib later on.

Square up your two yards of fleece and fold into quarters. Cut along the folds. By square up, I mean make sure they are all equal sizes. Cut off the salvages and cut straight edges. It helps to have a large self healing mat and rotary cutter to do this.

Once I have the blanket squared off (which is kind of a pain in the ass), I mark the corners with color coded pins. That way I know it's supposed to be the upper left corner of the blanket and don't accidentally flip it sideways sew it wrong.

Find the middle of the blanket and pin the numbers on. Fold the raw edges under. You could use an iron here, but I was concerned about the heat and the jersey melting. Sew it on with either a straight stitch or zig zag. Just make sure you are sewing it to the RIGHT side of the fabric.

Next, get a piece of cardboard. Or not, if you are capable of doing this freestyle. More power to you. I needed a pattern. I measured the blanket and used pins to indicate where I wanted the football to be. I measured the vertical distance between the pins and drew a line on the cardboard. The curved line of the football was a little trickier. I found something in my house that was flexible and used it to trace the arc. It happened to be a piece of garden edging that we bought but never installed. When you're done, you should have a semi-circle of cardboard that fits your fleece.

Take the minky fabric - remember I'm making two blankets here. I folded it in half, then folded it along the length, just wider than the semicircle. Put the straight edge of the cardboard alongside the fold. Cut.

You should have two football shapes.

Take some white fabric and cut two inch strips. 

Fold the raw edges to the center and iron flat. 

I eyeballed the next part. I folded the raw edges of the minky fabric under and pinned in place. Then I lined up where I wanted the white stripes to be. No measuring, just guess and check until I was happy with it. Those got pinned into place.

Sew the white strips onto the minky fabric. Straight stitch or zig zag would work. If I were doing this project again, I would've reinforced the white strips with fusible web. They would've been more easy to place, pin, and sew if they were stiffer.

Sew the football onto the blanket.

Cut 6 inch long pieces of ribbon. I don't know how many you'll need. You can space these out as you wish. I found that anywhere from 4-8 inches apart looked nice. These are just going to be tabs the baby can play with. Pin them to the fabric wherever you want. If your ribbon has words or a pattern on it like mine, make sure the pattern goes in the same direction as the pattern on the fleece.

 Stitch the sides up. Here's the front:

 Here's the back.