Weighted Blanket

After some research, we decided to make Sweet Son a weighted blanket. We let him pick two materials - a fleece sport ball pattern and a light weight rocket design. The plan was he could put the fleece next to him on cold nights and the cooler material next to him on warm nights.

In the middle we used a cheep white cotton. We drew a grid pattern with 4"x4" squares to help divide up the weights. There was also a 1" border drawn on the white for an extra strong border to make sure the blanket wouldn't be taken apart. We (I tried, but turns out Wonderful Husband has a magic touch with the sewing machine, so he did most of it) started by sewing the border - both lines - on 3 sides. Then he sewed all of the vertical lines to prepare it for the weights to be added.

We had Poly-Pellets to put inside. These are plastic, don't mold, and are machine washable so they are perfect filler for a blanket. We divided them into equal amounts which took a really long time because we didn't have a scale.

After pouring each cup of pellets into the openings, we had to make sure they got pushed all the way down so the horizontal line could be sewn. Repeat over and over and over. After the pellets were all secure, we attached the fleece to cover up the ugly white grid sheet.

The big test came when we gave him the blanket. He loved it. He slept with it every night it wasn't being washed. Since it was winter, he slept with the fleece side down. A few months later I suggested switching it since it was warmer. That's when the big error suddenly appeared. You can't sleep with the rockets on the bottom. As Sweet Son pointed out, the rockets would never be able to take off and fly if they were facing down. So he still sleeps with it fleece side down.