Sew a doll's electric blanket for cold winter nights!

        This handmade electric blanket will keep your American Girl doll warm and cozy on a cold winter night or a chilly spring morning. Our DIY even features a pretend control panel and electrical plug! This sewing project is for those of our visitors who really love to quilt. The raised cording intended to mimic the heating cord inside of an electric blanket is made using piping sandwiched between two layers of fabric. I blanket stitched my version in place. I also sewed a fur backing to one side of my electric blanket that is also in this lovely blue-green shade of color.

Supply List:

• Sculpey oven bake clay
• tack or white button
• two toothpicks for the prongs of the electric "plug"
  
• solid colored cotton fabric
• faux matching or coordinating fur fabric for the backing (optional)
• needle and thread
• cotton piping or cording for the faux "electrical cord" 
• tiny button prints for the electric blanket control panel
  
• hot glue gun and hot glue

Left, a close-up photo of the detailed quilting and blanket stitching in our 18" electric doll blanket.
Right, the finished electric blanket with a quilted, 3 dimensional surface.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut your doll's blanket to the size you would like to quilt. Although my version shown here is full sized, made to fit a particular doll bed, you could make a smaller lap version of this electric blanket and there would be less work involved.
2. Hand-baste the piping in place in a curved pattern on the back side of the cotton fabric. Use a bright red thread for this so that you can see it easily when the time comes to remove it. 
3. Pin the backside of the fabric blanket in place and quilt closely to the abstract piping placement on both sides to create a casing for it. After doing this you may remove the basting.
4. Now quilt the all "open" spaces left over, using a simple straight stitch. Follow the abstract piping patterns for a professional look.
5. I went back over the piping with an additional blanket stitch.
6. On opposite corners of the doll electric blanket sandwich end pieces of piping. One ending will be for the pretend electric cord, the other for the cord with the control panel attached.
7. Sculpt a small plug using oven-bake clay. 
8. Push two tiny clipped tips cut from toothpicks into one end of the plug and glue in place.
9. Shape a control panel for the electric blanket using oven bake clay as well. 
10. Remember to include a hole at the top of the plug and the bottom of the control panel, using the end of a pencil so that the piping may be glued inside of these clay pieces after they have been baked at 275 degrees in the oven. (check instructions on package of clay)
11. Hot glue a button or tack as a dial and cut tiny printed numbers from a magazine for the decoupaged switches on the control panel. (see pictures below)

Left, tiny plug made for a pretend electric outlet. Right, the fake control panel for our blanket
features printed buttons and tack