Stefanie from The Style Safari is back for one last DIY nursery project! Whether you’re a mom or dad-to-be or are simply looking for just the right gift for an upcoming baby shower, Stefanie’s custom blanket tutorial will show you just how easy it is to personalize what’s sure to be baby’s favorite blankie.
Stefanie: Making your own custom baby name fabric is such an easy way to personalize your nursery or make a sweet custom gift for an expecting loved one. I make custom reversible baby blankets for all my friends’ babies using Spoonflower’s Minky fabric, and everyone always loves them! Get creative with your custom name fabric and use different fonts and fabrics to make crib sheets, wallpaper, pillows and more to really personalize a space.
What You Need:
- Photoshop
- You can download a free 7-day trial here
- 2 yards of Minky
- 1 yard for the front featuring your custom name design
- 1 yard for the back
- I’m using Roses / Black and White on Grey by andrea_lauren
- Satin trim
Setup Your Design Canvas
Download a fun cursive font of your choice and get it loaded up into Photoshop. I find lots of free fonts on DaFont.com such as Mamae Que Nos Faz by Rafael Pereira.
Important Note: Many sites offering free fonts are for personal use only!
Open up a new document in Photoshop. I always like to start bigger so that I can still scale down in Spoonflower, so I have created a canvas that is 16″ x 16″ at 150 dpi.
Create the Blanket Design
Start by using the Line tool to create your first colored stripe. As you create your second and third line, use the Selection tool to drag the stripes to your desired distance a part. Photoshop will automatically measure the distance between objects and show you the measurement so it’s easy to ensure that they are equidistant apart.
Select all three colored lines in your layers menu and copy/paste them all the way down to cover the remainder of your background. Feel free to crop or edit your background using the ‘Canvas Size’ dropdown in the ‘Image’ Menu if you need to add or remove length.
Pro tip: By adding the first three lines to a Group, you can easily copy/paste all three lines at one time.
Create a text box and type in the name in your desired font. Drag it to your desired location on the page. It doesn’t matter where you start or decide to place it, but I started in the middle, just a little off center so that I could strategically place the name above and below in a cascading manner.
Zoom in close to the name where it meets your line. Go back to your line and copy/paste a version of that same line. Using the selection tool, shorten the length of both lines so that they just reach the end of the text. For Marina’s name, there is one line that just meets up to the M, and the other that just starts at the Y. I then created one more copy and also cropped it to join the A and R.
Repeat this process for each color line you have, which for me, was 3 more times. However, due to the staggered look that I was trying to achieve, I split up the first and second name for the final color so that it would look more seamless when it repeats. You may have to go back and move your original 2 text boxes to make it look more evenly spaced.
Upload your Blanket Design
Save your document as a JPG and then upload to Spoonflower! Play around with the DPI to get the size you like, and use the ‘Basic’ repeat functionality to make it look best.
If you are making a baby blanket like mine you only need 1 yard of Minky in the custom name fabric and 1 yard in a contrasting print, so have fun mixing prints and colors to make a unique combination!
And just like that, you’ve added a personalized touch to your DIY nursery. If you’re feeling inspired to design the fabric for the back of the blanket, you don’t want to miss this helpful seamless repeat tutorial using Photoshop. If you give this DIY a try, don’t forget to tag #spoonflower and #stylesafaribaby so we can see how you’ve personalized your Minky!
About the Guest Blogger
Stefanie Schoen is a blogger, designer and avid sewist who loves mixing prints and playing with color. She lives outside of San Francisco, where she enjoys wine tasting with her husband, playing tennis and snowboarding, and making the perfect matcha latte. Stefanie blogs about her latest travels, fashions and DIY projects weekly and can be found over at TheStyleSafari.com
ooh wow! thank you so much for this tutorial. I am looking into expanding my product line and this looks amazing. I currently embroider on 100% cotton blankets in Sydney, Australia.
https://www.thelittlehub.com/collections/knitted-blankets
Whoa this is so cool. I wonder if I can do this with an existing blanket? I bought one for my niece at http://www.baby-blanket.co with milk bottle design, but want to make it more personalized. I thought maybe embroidery or something might work? Or if I can use the Photoshop design to overlay and use it as a pattern?
Hi Kimberly,
You could certainly print a smaller piece of the custom name fabric like an 8″ swatch and stitch it on top of the existing blanket in one of the corners to create a personalized blanket!
Hello,
I absolutely love Spoonflower! Unfortunately I do not sew myself or make the projects myself. I was wondering if the fabric shown on this minky baby blanket can be customized for me?
Hi Victoria,
Great question! There are lots of designers in the Spoonflower Marketplace who offer custom name fabric. For example, designer Heather Hight can customize one of her baby blanket designs. Once logged into your Spoonflower account, you can send them a message directly from their shop to request a custom name design. I hope that helps, but if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask!
Thank you for the tutorial; do you have instructions on how to make the blanket itself, with the satin trim?
Hi Sarah,
You can find a tutorial for a self-binding Minky and Satin blanket here! I hope that helps, but if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask! – Meredith
So then Spoonflower will print it on fabric? Sorry, I’m new.
Barbara
We sure will! You can learn more about Spoonflower’s process here. If you have any specific questions about the process, please don’t hesitate to send us a message at help@spoonflower.com