No-Sew Blanket for Angel Babies

Last fall, a friend of mine lost her little girl, Olivia, about halfway through her pregnancy. Her due date was a few weeks ago and to commemorate Olivia, we made some blankets to take to nearby hospitals for other "angel babies", i.e. stillborn babies or babies who passed away at any point during the pregnancy. The no-sew blankets are cut in half and then woven back together with ribbon so that the baby can be swaddled in the blanket and when mother and baby are eventually separated, one half of the blanket remains with the baby and the other half goes home with Mom and Dad.

A friend of mine coordinated this blanket project but had a hard time finding a pattern for blankets that don't require sewing, so she asked me to post her tutorial so others can make blankets without any sewing skills.

**There are two straight edges to sew but if you want a truly no-sew blanket, use iron-on adhesive instead of sewing.

1. Fold a square baby blanket/receiving blanket in half diagonally. Cut the blanket in half down your diagonal fold (or mark the diagonal line, unfold and cut).

2. Sew the freshly cut edges. To make it easy, fold your edge in about 1/2 inch first. Then sew a straight edge. (Or use your iron-on adhesive, just follow the directions on the package.)

Like so.

3. Cut (very small!) holes for the ribbon along both freshly sewn diagonal edges. Fold the edge over about 1/2 inch and cut. I didn't measure my cuts but eyeballed them to be about an inch apart. Make tiny cuts-- keep in mind that your cut will double in length when you unfold it.

4. Line up the two pieces of the blanket with right sides of the fabric in. Weave the ribbon in and out of the blanket, leaving about a foot of ribbon on either side.

5. Tie the excess ribbon into a bow on either end. I didn't leave enough ribbon on either side, hence my miniscule bows. So learn from my mistake and make a normal-sized bow.

6. Unfold, and your blanket is finished.

When we finished our blankets, we worried for a minute that they wouldn't be big enough to swaddle the babies. But most angel babies are much smaller than a full-term baby so the blankets will cover them well. When its time for mom and baby to be separated, the ribbon can be unwoven and rewoven into one side of the blanket.