This story would be better with some pictures of these mishaps. But when you are in the midst of things sometimes you are overwhelmed and stopping to take a picture of your own stupidity isn't first thing on your mind, you know?
I had the bright idea to make some weighted blankets rather than purchase them. That way they could be the exact fabrics that the kids wanted. Etc and all the other reasons why I have a craft room in the first place!
Then it was on to Pinterest to research how these things are made. You have to know how much weight is correct for the size/height/weight of the person using it. Then it was a matter of figuring out what to use for the weight; the plastic weighted things (like in Beanie Babies) or something else. Rice, flax seed and corn are good things because they are natural and can be heated or stuck in the freezer for cooling treatments, too. But those items are not washable. If they get damp they can mold inside the blanket and have to be thrown away.
Then I discovered cherry stones. They are also a natural product, they come from Michigan the land of cherries, and believe it or don't they can be washed and dried. Who knew?!
Cherry stones sounded like the perfect answer to the question. I was really intrigued to try this project. Anyhoo, we got the fabrics and I washed, dried and ironed them while waiting on the cherry stones to arrive. And I watched tutorials on how best to sew these up.
Basically, you sew the fabrics together on 3 sides with the right sides facing in. Then you trim it and turn it right side out. You will then decide how many little segments you want to have with the stones evenly divided throughout the blanket. Got it?
For the size I am doing for a 2 year old who weighs 30 pounds the weight of the blanket should be between 10 and 20% of total body weight. We were shooting for 4 pounds of total blanket weight. The size of the blanket evenly divided into 6 x 4 squares. Six segments down the long side crossed with 4 going across. I then took the blanket sewn on the 3 sides and marked it into the six and sewed there creating six channels. I took the cherry stones and divided the 4 lbs into 24 equal-ish bowls.
So far, so good, right? But I looked at the fabric and thought how flat the color was. And then it dawned on me that I had NOT FLIPPED THE FABRIC RIGHT SIDE OUT!!!!
Oh good Lord. So I got my seam ripper and carefully took out all the channels that I had just sewn in. And then I cleaned up all the bits of thread and flipped it correctly and remarked all the six channels again and sewed them in place.
I took the first 6 portions of the cherry stones and poured them in and pushed them down to the end and pinned across to sew them in place. This is working out! Yay!
I did the next row up and pinned and then sewed that row. Then on the third row I started having a little trouble because of the weight of the whole thing and the stones wanting to shift around. But I got the 3rd row done and as I lifted it and cut the thread from the machine I heard the sound of falling cherry stones. That was closely followed by the sound of my heart also falling into my stomach.
That whole 3rd row was not closed because I had run out of bobbin thread. Son of a BITCH!
So I got down on the floor gathered up all the cherry stones and divided them up again and set all of this on my work table. And I got my bobbin out and refilled it and got my machine ready to rock and roll and turned everything off and left the room.
You can only make so many mistakes before you realize it is time to take a break and come back to this project tomorrow.
