It’s official. I finally have a friend who’s having a baby boy 
I’ve been thinking of baby gifts for their little one and I wanted to make something football related. They are both into football, though divided (she likes the Cowboys/he likes the Redskins). Classic huh?
Since the baby is due in the colder months I though a football blanket would be quite appropriate. And what better than one made out of super soft and warm fabric?
I used my daughter to model the blanket so you could see the perfect size for a little one this is.
The shape makes it really easy to wrap around the baby too. I can just imagine a mom at a football game with little one all wrapped up in one of these with the underneath side sporting a fabric with the teams colors.
It could also be used as a play mat. Good size and super soft.
The pattern is for this smaller size, but you could easily create an even bigger one for the older football fan in your life.
My daughter was kind of cooperative this time See that smile? That’s “haha mommy. I’m not going to put my head up for you to take pictures ;)”
Let’s talk about fabric real quick. For the top, I wanted to use some of that minky fabric (this kind is minky dot fabric). I found this brown at a local fabric store. You could use fleece or flannel or even regular cotton fabric if you like. For the bottom, I used a cool green/brown hounds-tooth. But, I think it would be neat to find a print of the parent’s favorite football team or something like that too. I didn’t do that because their house is divided in its allegiance.
What you need:
-Pattern (download and print from here)
-1 yard minky fabric (or other of your choice)
-1 yard flannel fabric (or other of your choice)
-1/4 yard of white fleece (or flannel or knit…it needs to be a non fraying fabric)
-Coordinating thread
-Appropriate sewing needle (I found that out of all the sizes I had, the size that worked best was an 11(75) for medium weight fabrics).
*Tip: The minky is a very slippery fabric to work with and the fleece can be really stretchy, so make sure to pin things down really good or even try using an iron on adhesive (like heat n’ bond) to “stick” the fleece onto the minky first then sew it on.
*All seams are 1/4″
1. Print out pattern pieces and cut out. They go together like this:
The odd number pages are at the top, the even ones are on the bottom.
Match up on the dotted lines and tape together.
2. Lay the 1 yard of minky down flat.
3. Fold in half long ways.
4. Fold in half again, so there are now two folds. Place pattern piece on so the two sides marked fold are placed on the fold. Cut out of fabric.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the bottom fabric you chose.
6. Cut out these pieces from the white fleece:
– (1) piece of 14″ x .75″ for the long middlepart
– (6) pieces of 4″ x .5″ for the little pieces that go on top of long middle piece
– (2) pieces of 23″ x 1.75″ for the sides
7. Place the 23″ x 1.75″ seven inches in from the side. Pin in place. Put the long middle piece in the exact middle of the middle with the 6 little pieces evenly spread out on it. Pin in place.
8. Sew the fleece in place.
9. Now place the top football on the floor, right side facing up. Then place the bottom fabric on top, wrong side facing up. Sew the two pieces together, leaving an opening for turning right side out.
10. Turn blanket right side out. Turn in edges of where the opening was and pin in place. Then sew around the edges of the whole blanket. I didn’t sew over the white though because I didn’t want the brown thread to be seen there. You can do that if you like or even go back over those parts with changing the top thread to white so it isn’t seen.
Now you have one nice comfy cozy football blanket ready for cuddling! Thanks to my dad for helping with the phots
This would be so cute with their teams fabric on the back. Potential gift for a baby shower I have coming up…
What a great idea! My son’s room is Steeler’s themed, and I wanted to make him a blanket to match. I might be making one of these very soon!
This is adorable! I just “pinned” it for future use! Thanks for sharing!
A few things:
1) This is really great, and a fantastic idea!
2) All my friends have been having boys! Now I might have something awesome to make for them that’s really different!
3) You seriously could have been talking about me and my husband at the top with him liking Redskins and her liking Cowboys! That is SO me and my hubs! … But I’m not having a baby right now….we already have three girls and the youngest is only 20 months.
This looks so soft and cozy! My husband would like one of these in a much larger size!
Ohh I might be making one of these for my little girl…. and then for my toddlers too. LOL I would have to make them Green Bay green and gold and Bears (yuck) brown and whatever color they are.
Thank you so much for the amazing pattern!
Oh.my.CUTE! Two of my good friends are pregnant, so if either of them are having boys, they will be getting one of these.
Thanks for sharing!!
So very cute!
Good thinking!
Love it!
super cute! I´ve never seen this kind of blanket before
Jess, this is awesome! I love the blanket. Thanks for the pattern and the tutorial.
Your little model is a spunky little mite – I love the cheeky grin! lol
Great design – thanks for the pattern!
What a fun idea! I think I might have to make a big one for tailgating.
Love it!! I have been meaning to change the little blanket I have on the back of the couch to something more appropriate for Fall and this will be perfect!
A little tip I heard about working with Minky fabric is to use your walking foot. It feeds it through evenly and makes it 1000x easier.
Oh my gosh I LOVE this! I am having my third boy in February so this is perfect
AND I happen to already have a “team” fabric and the white so all I have to get is the minky brown – win!
Thank you SO much for sharing this pattern. The pictures and descriptions were really easy to follow
If I can remember, I’ll send you pics of my baby & the finished blanket <3
Oh my goodness, this is AWESOME!! I love Jana’s idea to have team fabric on the back!!! What an awesome gift that would make! Every Saturday in the fall, I have a College Football link party on my site and I would LOVE to have you link this up there!
http://www.momendeavors.com/2011/10/college-football-saturday-tailgate-spinach-artichoke-dip.html
Love it!!!!
Love this pattern! Can’t wait to make one!
Love your blog!!!! So cute!
http://www.countingby4.blogspot.com
This is too fabulous! We’re expecting #4 in January and my husband LOVES football! I’m going to make this, hide it in my bag for the hospital, and then surprise him with it after the baby is born. This is going to be such an awesome gift for ‘Daddy’!
This is so adorable Jessica! What a great idea.
such a cute idea! Definitely will use this pattern for a Christmas present for a football fan family… now should i choose Daddy’s team or Mommy’s Team…. maybe I will use the city’s team Baby Isaac was born in… which conveniently is my team! =)
Aww! Cute idea! Love it so much!
I am making my son one of these for Christmas. Thank you for making this pattern! Now to decide on which team to put on the back. My hubby’s team or mine!
Just made one of these, so cute. Can’t wait for my son to use it. Thanks for a really great pattern.
I love this blanket! And most of all I love your tip for working with minky. It is my go to fabric for baby quilts – but it shifts so much when I do a cotton/minky quilt. I will now be using heat n bond (or similar) to match up my fabrics so that I don’t have any shifting!! THANK YOU!! So GENIUS! (or obvious and I just never thought of it… )
Visiting from Ucreate. This is ridiculously adorable! Thanks for the pattern!!!
Your daughter is adorable! what a cutie
I can’t wait to do this, but instead of using heat and bond I would use spray adhesive. I love that stuff! It is much quicker then heat and bond!
Love this blanket! I really want to make one for my friend who plays high school football, but do you know how I would go about doing that?! Like with the pattern and all or even how much fabric I would need to get!?
Robyn-
I would suggest maybe using a brown fleece blanket and a sheet (either cotton or flannel). With it being winter, you should be able to find those for a good deal. I think Walmart even usually has solid color fleece blankets for cheap. Try to make it a bit more of a rectangle to mimic more of a football shape. Then fold in twice like I do in the tutorial and cut the same type of angle on the open sides. You could always cut it a little open it and check it, then cut some more off until you like it. That is what I did. Then for the white part (lace) you could just buy some fleece from a fabric store. Just measure how long you want it for the longest part and buy the yardage at that length. I hope this helps some
Let me know if you make one. I would love to see how it comes out!
I just finished making one for a baby shower I am going to tomorrow. I used a brown flannel and a blue plaid flannel. Thank you so much! It turned out really cute.
Thank you so much for this pattern! I made a blanket for my seven-week old nephew for Christmas and it turned out great.
http://littlepitterpatter.blogspot.com/2012/01/christmas-crafts-revealed.html
LOVE this! I’m having a new grandbaby this month so I’m making it for him with the parents’ favorite team in flannel on the underside of the blanket. Cute idea! Thanks for sharing!
Thank You for the cute idea!
I love this!! I searched forever for it after finding a picture of it on pinterest but once I found it the site wouldnt’ let me pin any of the pictures!! Thanks SO much for the pattern! I will definitely be making this for baby boy!
So do you think that if we are doing for an older child, teen, adult just keep adding a yard each time we go up a “size”??
Hmmm you could try that. At a certain point though, if you are using regular 45″ wide fabric, it will get more of stretched out football look. So, if making for an adult, maybe try to find 60″ fabric if possible or some kind of already made large fleece blanket to use. But if making it bigger just for a child that would be a good thing to do.
This is so cute Jess! So thankful Kari pinned it so I could enjoy the adorable tutorial! Love it!
I hope you will consider uploading a photo of this into SewSet, my latest endeavor. SewSet is a new on-line sewing pattern & tutorial search engine – where users can browse, search & find what they are looking for! And everything links directly back to your URL. Your creations are always so fabulous, and would be a great and welcome addition to the site!
Thanks so much for sharing, and I hope you have a great day!
- Jess
http://www.sewset.com/
http://www.mesewcrazy.com/
I would love to make this for my nephews for Christmas presents. Is the sewing advanced? I’m a beginner and wondering if I could tackle this project. Also, did you use a sewing machine or could you hand sew it?
How sweet of you! I wouldn’t say the sewing is advanced, it’s just that the types of fabrics I used could be a pain to sew (especially for the first time!). But, you could always use plain old cotton fabric or make both sides from flannel fabric for an easier sew (then just add iron on adhesive to white flannel for the strips). I used a sewing machine, but you could hand sew it. It would just take a while
Or…you could try the iron on hem tape maybe?
Wonderful Tutorial! My Husband is a big football fan so I will have to do this for our future boys. I love it!
I linked to it on my blog post on the best baby tutorials, here:
http://welivedhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/2012/11/35-baby-sewing-tutorials-ideas-found.html
<3 Hannah
My friend is due with a GIRL but daddy is a big football fan. I’m making this brown minky and pink & brown pretty fabric on back. I’m including a cute note about her suffering through football games, but at least she’ll look pretty and be warm. (Something like that)
I just made this last night. It is my first time sewing all alone (last time was about 10 years ago with tdidn’t the help of my mom). My blanket did not turn out pretty…but it’s not bad! I just read about the iron on adhesive and I probably should have done that. I just have to do the final sewing around the edges….thank you for posting everything.
I created this blanket as a baby shower gift for a friend. It came out really well and the mom-to-be was thrilled. I blogged about it here (and linked back to this tutorial): http://boltsbobbinsblunders.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/a-football-blanket-doggy-bibs-sewing-baby-gifts/ Thanks!
I made this blanket for my brother-in-law and his wife who are currently expecting their first & everyone loved it! I put the dad’s favorite college team’s fleece on the back to personalize it. I also made it slightly larger, added interfacing to stiffen it/add some weight, and used a flat shoelace type “rope” to do the laces which added a nice texture. Thanks so much for the great pattern! Off to make my second for our little lady!
I love this idea! Your baby girl is so darling. Thank you for sharing.
I just made this and it turned out great! I used flannel for both sides because it was easier to work with and it kind of “sticks” together on its own. I used a 9×12 felt square to cut out the white pieces. The side white stripes have a seam but it looks cute! Thanks for the pattern
When I first saw this on Pinterest, I just knew it would be perfect for my nephew & his wife who were expecting, because he is on the coaching staff on a college team. Then I found out they were having a girl…but what the heck! I just used pink and brown polka dots on the backing! They love it! Since then, I have made one for my grandson with Patriots backing, and have cut one out for a close friend’s little guy. I am now printing out a 50% pattern to make a pillow for my grandson’s older brother to match his blanket! I hope it turns out great like the blankets have! Thank you so much for the pattern!!
I am going to make this but smaller and a pillow and give it to my dad
I really want to make this, and soon, for a baby shower. I used the link to download and print the template, but it won’t print. I tested my printer (printing something else) and it worked. I don’t know if it’s the PDF program or not. It just won’t print, and I’m so sad because I’m dying to make this!
I’m so sorry you are having trouble printing it
I made it using Adobe. Do you use that program to open up pdf files? I could try emailing you the pdf pattern and see if that makes a difference. You can email me at jessicafediw@yahoo.com. The only other suggestion I have is to try printing on someone elses printer. Or you could wing the pattern yourself 
I made two of these blankets using Minky on one side and fleece and flannel on the other. They turned out super cute. Thanks for the tutorial. Is it safe to throw them in the washing machine? If I didn’t beforehand?
Oh yes! Just was in cold water and dry normal, or if you think the dryer might shrink the fabric hang dry. I never wash these types of fabric before hand and have never encountered a problem
Thank you for the free pattern! This is just an adorable idea! I’m about to go upstairs and make one for my sweet nephew who is due in September. Thanks for the awesome inspiration!
Would you by any chance hace an idea on making a baseball blanket? i love the football idea which i plan to do for our little boy due in november but our friends having a boy as well and hes a football fan and shes a baseball fan and i know she would love it!!
Yes
I would suggest just making a circle and using felt/fleece for the strings. I would make the circle pattern in a similar way one drafts a circle skirt (except not the waist part ;). You can make it as big as the fabric is wide or smaller. Let me know if you make one. I would love to see what you create 
Thank you so much!!!
I love this! I would like to make one for my toddler grandson to use at the high school football games but want to make slightly larger…I have 1 1/2 yrds of fabric to work with…any tips on increasing the pattern to work with this size?
Oh how fun! I would suggest just keeping it in an oval shape with more pointed ends. Maybe fold it half one way then fold in half the other way and cut it so the fabric fold that would be the middle of the football is where the point goes to? lol I hope that makes sense! Kind of like how I cut it here, but just making yours bigger.
I am trying to print the pattern, and it is not fitting on the page. Any suggestions on how to get it to print right?
I’m sorry you are having trouble with it :/ What program are you opening it in? It would be best if possible to open it in Adobe pdf reader probably. I know sometimes the automatic pdf on my computer messes up patterns so they don’t fit right or they don’t print the same size on each so it doesn’t match up. Send me an email at jessicafediw@yahoo.com if you have done this and it still doesn’t work. I can try sending you the pattern via email and see if that helps.