The Weighted Blanket (pt 2)

Following on from last week, today I sewed the channels in the blanket.

I marked them at 10″ intervals to start and pinned the fabric in place, then I sewed from the bottom of the blanket to the top. The fleece stretched and moved while sewing, but I think this would ease if I had a walking foot.

Then I divided it again so I had channels that were 5″ apart and sewed again. This time I didn’t need to pin as the previous channels helped to hold it in place.

I also marked some rows 5″ wide in preparation for filling. I used a 1/4 cup measure (I had some American cups from my muffin making) and poured plastic beans into each channel.

Then I sewed along the row, unfortunately, with my first row lots of the beans tried to escape and it was really hard to hold them in place. So for the second row, I pinned above the beans to secure them better.

1 kg of plastics beans comfortably filled 3 rows of 5″ squares. But after I had sewed 5 rows my beloved Singer 99k started acting up. The hand crank became very hard to turn. I checked all the mechanisms and gave it an oil, but it didn’t help. After posting on a Ravelry forum for help, someone suggested that maybe there was a loose thread that was stopping it from moving, so tomorrow I shall dig out a torch and hunt for a rogue thread – so the blanket is on hold for now!

I have 2 weeks to go until her birthday, so this needs to be fixed quickly!