DIY: Puff Quilt

Sewing is one of those skills I’m attempting to work on… About two years ago I helped host a baby shower for one of my best friends. There had been multiple posts on Facebook and Pinterest about puff blankets, also known as bubble or biscuit quilts, and my friend loved them, but didn’t know anyone who sewed. I decided to give it a shot to make sure she got a beautiful quilt for her little girl.

Since I had very little sewing experience, I searched the internet and found an awesome tutorial by a woman named Skyler on her website Awaiting Ada. You can view her Bubble Quilt tutorial by clicking here.

What You’ll Need:

• Sewing machine and thread
• Multiple different colors of fabric- I used 18 colors to get a rainbow effect
• A couple yards of scrap fabric for the back of the puffs- doesn’t matter what color since you can’t see this when the blanket’s done
• A yard or two of soft fuzzy fabric for the backing- amount depends on the final size of your blanket
• A couple yards of fuzzy or silky fabric if you want a ruffle around the edge
•  Fiber fill
• Yarn

What to Do:

The first step is to cut your squares and plan your design. I used 6 by 6 inch squares and set them up in an 11 by 11 pattern. You can use more or less squares to make different sized blankets and can arrange them in a rectangle if preferred.

Next, you need to cut the fabric squares for the back of the puffs. These squares will be smaller than the front squares to create the “puff” effect.  I used 4 by 4 inch squares. The color of the back square doesn’t matter since you won’t see it in your finished product. Cut the same total number of smaller squares as large ones. I used 121 smaller squares for my blanket.

Now comes the tedious part (luckily I had my husband around to help me). It’s necessary to pin and sew each “puff” separately. Putting the front sides of the fabrics together, pin the corners of the larger and smaller squares together. The tutorial by Awaiting Ada shows a great example of exactly how to pleat the pinned edges to get the “puff”. Sew around the edge of the puff using a 1/4 inch seem, leaving about two inches of the edge open so you can flip them right side out.

Once the puffs are sewn together, flip the fabric right side out and fill will fiber fill. You don’t want the puffs to be super full since it makes them hard to sew together. Once the puffs are filled, finish sewing the open edge together.

Now its time to sew the puffs together. Pin the puffs edge to edge, one strip at a time and sew. Once you have your full strips of puffs, pin one strip to the next, being careful to line up the corners, and sew. Once this is done, you have the front of your blanket!

To finish, cut the backing to the blanket to size. If you want to add a ruffle around the edge of the blanket, this would be the time to do so. I’m not going to show how to do that here, but Awaiting Ada shows a great step by step. Pin the blanket backing, fuzzy side towards to front of your puffs. Sew around the edges leaving about a foot and a half of the side open. Using this opening, turn the blanket right side out. Finish the blanket edge by hand sewing the open seem.

Lastly, cut several pieces of yarn, each about two inches long. Using a needle, sew through the two blanket layers, then tie the two ends of the yarn together and knot. This ensures that the two layers of the blanket stay together and don’t shift. And you’re done 🙂

Enjoy your blanket!