How to Make a DIY Christmas Blanket using the Cricut Maker and Iron On HTV | This polyester blanket is the perfect budget handmade Christmas gift idea. No sew and super easy, this fleece blanket is perfect for everyone on your Christmas list and can be made in minutes. Includes free gift tag and design SVGs and images as well as a full tutorial.
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I am one of those people who always likes to be snuggled up in a book. It doesn't matter the time of day or the weather, whether I'm reading a book or watching TV, you'll find me curled up under a blanket as cosy as can be.
And I know I'm not the only one - I have so many other friends and family members who share my blanket love - and that sparked an idea! A Customised Blanket would make the perfect Christmas gift, so I had to come up with a super easy way to do just that.
And with a $5 blanket in hand, my Cricut maker and some iron on HTV, I did exactly that and created the easiest (and most impressive!) budget friendly handmade gift idea that anyone would be happy to receive this Christmas.
So let me show you how to make it! >>
The Blanket:
To start with, you're going to need a blanket! A 100% Polyester, 100% Cotton or Cotton/Polyester blend blanket works best with Cricut Iron on or HTV (we used Siser Easyweed).
I picked up a 100% polyester blanket on sale at Spotlight which was the perfect blanket for my Christmas blanket, but you can find them almost everywhere!
The Design:
Next you want to decide on your design! I decided to go with a simple 8x8" design to place in the centre edge of my blanket, so that it's seen when the blanket is folded up on our blanket ladder.
If you want to use my design, you can download it here. In that folder you'll find the blanket SVG as well as the gift tag SVGs.
Using the SVG:
For the Blanket Design
- Download the SVG to your computer
- Upload the SVG to Design Space
- If Wanting to Use Multiple Colours
- Ungroup the design.
- Select each of the pieces you want to be one colour.
- Change the material colour to the colour you want to cut.
- With the pieces still selected, select the "Attach" tool to attach all of the pieces that are the same colour.
- Repeat with each of the remaining colours you want to use.
- If Cutting a Single Colour Design
- Select the design on the right-hand layers panel and select "Attach"
- Highlight the entire design (with your cursor or Control+A or Command+A on the layers panel) and resize your design to suit your project (ours was 8" wide).
- Select "Make It"!
For the Gift Tag Design:
- Download the SVGs to your computer.
- Upload both SVGs to Design Space
- Resize the gift tag to your desired size (we sized the gift tag to 3.7" wide) and make sure the writing lines up.
- Select the gift tag writing and select "Draw" on the line type menu.
- Select the gift tag and writing and select "Attach" (this ensures the design is lined up and the machine will cut and draw one after the other).
The Materials:
For the blanket, we used Siser Easyweed HTV (White, Red and Green) and Siser Foil HTV (for the stars) - but you can use Cricut Iron On or any HTV/iron on material that's suitable for use with the Cricut.
For the gift tag, we used medium weight cardstock and a Cricut medium point (1.0) black pen.
Preparing the Blanket:
Before attaching my design, I remove excess fluff and fibres from the blanket using a sticky lint roller and then brush all of the blanket fibres in the same direction so that the design attaches evenly.
Once you've weeded all of your excess vinyl, it's time to press your design. Lay it out on the blanket as you want it.
See how the green leaves on the sides of "merry little Christmas" are touching the white letters? This is what you DO NOT WANT to do. You need to make sure all of your design is touching the blanket. If your design is touching the plastic transfer sheet of another section of the design, it will stick to the transfer sheet and not your blanket.
If you cannot trim the design so that everything is touching the blanket, you will need to press your design in a few different layers instead - I've explained that below.
Pressing the Blanket:
Every HTV/Iron On will have different heat settings.
For Siser Easyweed, we pressed our design at 150C/300F for 15 seconds, then peeled the transfer sheet and pressed for another 15 seconds.
If you're layering multiple colours, you need to make sure all of your layers are touching the blanket and none of the material you want to press down is touching the plastic transfer sheet. If you're layering colours on top of each other, you will need to do multiple short presses instead (I usually do 3-5 second presses per layer and then carefully peel up the transfer sheet before adding the next layer).
We always place a sheet of baking paper or a Teflon sheet between our design and the Easy Press to protect the Easy Press.
If Using Different Types of HTV/Iron On Vinyl:
Check the settings to determine the heat and pressing requirements for each type.
Because we used Siser Easyweed HTV (White, Red and Green) and Siser Foil HTV (for the gold stars), we first pressed the Easyweed layer, then removed the transfer sheet, added the foil stars and reduced the temperature to 135C before pressing again.
Once your blanket is pressed and your gift tag is made, you're ready to gift! We simply folded our blanket, tied it with a ribbon with the gift tag attached and it was ready to gift!
And there you have it, the simplest handmade gift idea you can make in under an hour!
Don't feel like you have to use our design - get creative, use your own SVG, create a Monogram blanket, theme it around an inside joke - the options are endless!
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