The Weighted Blanket

My daughter’s 15th birthday is rapidly approaching, so I needed to work out what to get her. It just so happens that she has recently been diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum (which has answered so many questions!).

She has used heavy things (like sofa cushions) for years to help calm herself when she gets upset, so when she found out about weighted blankets it seemed like an ideal potential present. The only problem is they are expensive!

So after lots of research into sites like Sharing the Weight, I figured I could make one myself.

So here is the first stage of making a weighted blanket:

I bought fabric.

My daughter loves Sharks, and I managed to find this printed quilting fabric called Yikes!

I also picked up some red fleece for the back and plain black polio to line the fleece (as I had read that the fleece can make it difficult to get plastic pellets in).

I stitched together a large rectangle inside out so that when I turned it the right way round I would get a Shark, Poplin, Fleece sandwich.

Approximate size after sewing is 40″ across and more than 50″ high. I’m going to trim the height once I work out how many rows I want. But I’m aiming for 10 x 4″ columns.

I then topstitched around the sides and base. Next weekend I am going to see the columns and start filling them with poly beads. I have already purchased 4kg of poly beads from a shop called Tinkerbell Creations (as they were the most cost-effective I found in the UK).

I’m a little worried about sewing the beads into the blanket as it is already quite unwieldy when sewing, but that is mainly because I’m sewing on a hand crank machines. So I only have 1 hand to support and steer the fabric. I already have some spectacular scratches on my arms from the pins, so let’s see how mangled I get next weekend!