Crochet blankets are amazing on their own but if you line a crochet blanket with soft flannel fabric, it becomes so much more. In this tutorial, I am going to pull out my sewing knowledge from when I was a seamstress and give you all the steps for adding a liner to a crochet blanket. I have a video tutorial walking you through the process using a sewing machine and a second tutorial showing how you can hand sew the liner in instead.
I know everyone has a different level of experience when it comes to sewing and using a sewing machine. If you have any questions that are not answered by this tutorial, please leave them in the comments below.
Steps to Line a Crochet Blanket
Now don’t get worried, this may look like a lot of steps, but that is because I have broken this process into bite-size pieces. I will also let you know which steps could be skipped and why I try not to skip them. So here are the steps to line a crochet blanket.
1. Block your Blanket
2. Measure your Blanket
3. Buy your Fabric
4. Wash your Fabric
5. Iron your Fabric
6. Cut your Fabric
7. Iron your Seam Allowance
8. Pin to your Blanket
9. Sew and Adjust
10. Clip your Threads
Another extra step I will recommend is to make a sample swatch of the yarn and stitch that you will be sewing through and run it through your machine. Certain yarns like Red Heart’s Hygge may snag when it goes through the machine. Basic stitches like the double crochet and single crochet worked with Red Heart Super Saver or Red Heart With Love yarn will not give you any trouble while you are sewing.
Testing your yarn and stitch also helps you figure out what kind of stitch you want to set your sewing machine to. I had to lengthen my stitches, because the blanket was causing the stitches to be very very tiny.
Practice makes Perfect
Before you get excited and start prepping your blanket to be lined, I highly recommend that you make a little square of crochet and practice lining it. If you are confident in your sewing skills, then skip this step. But if you are a beginner, then I recommend practicing first.
Materials you May Use
Here is a list of materials you may need to use to line a crochet blanket.
You will need:
-Your Blanket or sample piece.
-Tape Measure
-Spray Bottle
-Iron and Ironing Board
-Cardstock
-Scissors
-Safety Pins or Straight Pins
-Sewing Machine or Needle and Thread
-Washing Machine and Dryer
Line a Blanket Video tutorial
How to Line a Crochet Blanket
Preparing your Blanket
If you have ever crocheted a blanket then I am sure you know that the size the blanket is the second you finish it, is not the same size it will end up being. Your stitches will relax and get stretched out and your blanket will end up bigger. Well in order to prepare to line the blanket we will need to stretch it our now.
Step 1: Block your Blanket
To block your blanket you will lay your blanket out on a flat surface and stretch it out a little bit. Shape the blanket so that all the edges are laying flat and look straight. Now take a spray bottle with some water and lightly mist the blanket until it is a little damp. Leave you blanket to dry. This will cause the stitches to relax and will better hold the shape that it dries in.
Step 2: Measure your Blanket
With your blanket laid out, you will need to measure you blanket to figure out how much fabric you will need. The Millie Bobble Baby Blanket above measured 31 inches by 30 inches between the border. I chose not to line behind the border of the blanket. When I purchase fabric I will want to make sure I get a piece that is larger than 34 inches by 33 inches. This may seem bigger than necessary but I assure you, you will want the extra wiggle room.
Preparing your Fabric
Step 3: Buy your Fabric
When buying your fabric you will want to look for a soft fabric that does not stretch. Flannel is my go-to option, but you can also use cotton fabric as well.
Step 4: Wash your Fabric
I will be honest, this is a step that most people skip. Plus if you skip this step you can skip the next step, ironing. I am going to urge you to take the time to wash and iron the fabric. Some fabrics will shrink the first time they are washed. This is also why we want to buy more fabric then we need, because we do not know how much it will shrink.
Just picture this, you make a stunning baby blanket and take the time to line it. Then the baby’s parents accidentally throw it in the wash on a heated setting, then dry it on high and it comes out looking oddly pillowy because the liner shrank and is pulling on the blanket. The blanket will not lay flat and will need to have the liner cut out and resewn.
This is not something I want to happen to you. So place your fabric in a laundry bag and wash it the same way you plan to wash your blanket. For me, that is a cold wash with a medium heat dry.
Step 5: Iron your Fabric
Once your fabric has been washed, it will have picked up some wrinkles. Grab your iron and ironing board and press out those wrinkles. We want to have an accurate measurement when we cut the fabric and the wrinkles will throw it off.
Step 6: Cut your Fabric
So now we are ready to cut our fabric. If you remember from above, I am going to line the area inside the border of the Millie Blanket. That area measures 31″ x 30″ and we are going to have a seam allowance (the area that will be turned under so we don’t see a raw edge) of 1/2 inch on each side of the blanket.
Normally we would then cut our fabric to be 32″ X 31″. This makes perfect sense when sewing with fabric, but crochet stretches and as we pin and move around our blanket it will continue to stretch. So I recommend adding 3 inches to each measurement to know how big to cut your fabric.
So a 31″x 30″ blanket area needs fabric that is 34″ x 33″.
This will give us plenty of wiggle room when our blanket decides to stretch out a little more. If you are only lining a sample swatch, I would add an extra 2 inches instead of 3.
Step 7: Iron your Seam Allowance
Once again you can skip this step, but if you are not an experienced sewer then I would not recommend it. I mentioned above that we will be using a 1/2″ seam allowance.
What I want you to do is place the fabric with the right side (more colorful side) facing the ironing board. Then at the edge, you will fold the fabric back on itself so that 1/2″ of the right side can be seen. Iron this down. Continue doing this around the two sides of the fabric.
We are only folding down two sides because the other sides will be adjusted as we pin it to the blanket. Check out the video tutorial for a demonstration of this.
Step 8: Pin Fabric to your Blanket
The next step is to pin our fabric to our blanket. You can use the traditional straight pins to do this, but my quilting grandmother taught me that safety pins work better when pinning blankets. They will not fall out when you move the blanket around and end up on the floor where your feet will find them. OUCH!
Start by pinning the two sides that have the seam allowance ironed down on. Once those are in place we will turn down and pin the other two sides. Turn the fabric down as far as you need to in order to have the folded edge to meet the blanket right before the border.
How to Hand Sew a Liner Video Tutorial
Step 9: Sew and Adjust
So it is finally time to line the crochet blanket. The blanket is prepped, the fabric has been prepped, and we have pinned the two together.
I have a few tips for sewing the liner in place. The first is that you sew very very slowly. We will be sewing a seam on top of the fabric about 1/8 of an inch from where the fabric is folded. It is easy to get a lead foot and sew your seam right off of the liner and create holes.
The second tip is to sew the two edges that only have 1/2″ turned under first. That way if your blanket stretches at all you can unpin and adjust the two sides with a larger seam allowance to compensate.
I will confess that my blanket did stretch and I did not have the excess seam allowance. I had to rip out the seam and sew an extra piece to my liner to make it fit. It was not a fun process so use this excess amount of liner to compensate for any more stretching your crochet blanket will do.
Check out the video tutorial for more demonstrations and tips for sewing the liner in place. Once you make it all the way around your blanket, make sure to sew over the first few inches of seam a second time to lock it in place.
Step 10: Clip your Threads
So our liner is sew in place and looks great. The very last thing we need to do is simply cut all the sewing threads. Once that is down your blanket is ready to be enjoyed.
I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Sewing and using a sewing machine is a big topic and hard to cover all the details in one tutorial. So feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.
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