A while back, I told you that I was going to make W a weighted blanket. I started out great and was even composing a lovely, illustrated tutorial to share. But then life happened and I stopped working on it. Until a new reader commented on my post and reminded me that I still needed to finish the damn thing. So I set out to do that tonight.
It did not go well. The blanket had started defeating me when I initially worked on it because I'm apparently not capable of sewing long, straight lines on large pieces of fabric. My "six-inch-wide" channels were more like "kinda-six-but-some-more-like-five-or-eight-inch-wide" channels. I torn one line out three times before I got it close enough to "straight" for me to leave it alone. I learned that investing in a seam ripper would probably not be a bad idea, even though I still haven't purchased one.
I thought dumping the pellets in and sewing it up would be simple. Now, three hours and two broken needles later, I take that back. Just a hint, in case you're dumb enough to try making one of these, too - grow a third arm before you start. It gets awfully hard to keep the blanket lined up close to straight, move it through the machine, and prevent each pound-and-a-half-heavier row from pulling the whole thing (machine included) off the table all at the same time.
By the time I sewed through my millionth plastic pellet and broken my second (and final) needle, I was done. I really, really wanted to finish it just so I didn't have to deal with it any more, but that would have required me to put on a bra and go to Wal-Mart at 11:30 at night. So I rolled it up, vacuumed up the pellets that were all over the living room floor, and came here to bitch instead.
I'm just about half done with the filling and sewing. And it is ugly. I keep telling myself it doesn't matter because the stupid thing will hold the pellets in (oh, how I pray it will hold the pellets in!) and W will love it because it has Buzz (Lightyear, from the Toy Story series, for those who don't get to watch one of those movies on an almost-daily basis). I'll come back when I'm done to let you know which one of us comes out on top. Hint: it's probably going to be the blanket.
2 comments:
Oh, I'm sorry! I made a couple of those blankets (one for Ian, and one for my friend's son), and they were HARD! Trying not to run over those stupid plastic pellets while I was sewing the horizontal lines...pellets EVERYWHERE....how heavy it was towards the end....I figured out part way through one of them that I had done my calculations incorrectly and was putting the wrong amount of pellets in...and I have LOTS of those pellets left that I don't know what to do with!
I made my friend's son a sort of lap blanket (around placemat size) too, for times he was away from home and needed it (church, school, car trips, etc...) and that was a little easier just because it wasn't so big and heavy!
GOOD LUCK!! And try not to worry about straight lines; they aren't vital to the construction =). Your son will love it because you made it and it has Buzz!
I can not wait to see this dang thing all finished up now!
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