Weighted blankets seem to be all the rage this holiday season. They’re supposed to be soothing, and promote a better night’s sleep. I decided to make one as a gift. Here’s how I did it:
The weight I used was tiny plastic beads purchased online. I bought a 10lb box of the beads, which should work well for the size blanket I am making.
The finished size will be approximately 40″x60″
To avoid having to worry about washing and drying the blanket with the beads in it, I designed it as an inner muslin panel that contains the beads, and an outer flannel slipcover. That way the slipcover can be removed and washed separately.
There is no way around it…this is a time-consuming process. Each square needs to be filled separately to ensure even distribution of the beads, and a secure seal on all the seams.
Although mine is 40×60, this can be scaled to any size you want. Make sure you do the math to determine how many squares you need to fill, and how much fill goes in each square. My squares worked out to be about 3″ each, and with a 1/4″ seam allowance on all sides, that left a 2 1/2″ square to fill.
There are 14 rows of 20, for a total of 280 squares. A 10lb box of beads equals 160 ounces. To divide that evenly and use all the beads, you’d need 160/280 = .57 ounces each. The other thing to consider is the size of the square. A 2.5″ square will fit approximately 2 tablespoons of beads. That means the most that can go in each square is the lower of .57 ounces or 2 tbsp. As it happens, 2 tbsp of the beads I used weighed out to be .5 ounces, so that means it’ll use up a little less than the whole 10lb box.
Cut two pieces of muslin to size, and mark out the grid of squares on one side. Sandwich the two pieces together, and sew a seam on each side of all of the lines in one direction across the entire piece. I used a 1/4″ seam allowance, one on either side of the line, so there are actually two rows of stitching for each line. This allows the blanket to bend more easily than if there was only one seam right on the line.
Next, sew the two seams on either side of the one line in the middle in the other direction. This will leave you with a series of tubes that are joined at the middle.
The easiest way to get the beads into the tubes is with a funnel. I tried a couple of smaller ones but they clogged too easily. I ended up with a larger plastic funnel that I got at Lowe’s in the automotive section for about $3. I cut off the last inch of the funnel to get rid of a ridge that was interfering with the beads.
Get out your funnel, put it in the first tube, and dump in a measure of beads. Move on to the next tube, and dump its beads in. Repeat the process until you have one measure of beads in each tube for the entire row. Be careful to not let the beads fall back out of the tube as you are filling the other ones!
Once you have completed a pass, the next step is forcing the beads down to the bottom of each tube. Lay the material out flat, and use a ruler to scrape any stragglers down to below where the next line of sewing will be.
After you have the beads forced into place, use pins or basting to hold the material closed so the beads don’t fall out. The more careful you are about getting all the beads below the line, the less chance there is of hitting a bead when sewing the seams.
After doing a few rows with pins, I discovered that basting ended up being the quicker way to go, plus there were no pins to worry about, either hitting them with the sewing machine needle, or scratching you as you work.
Carefully (!!) move the piece to your sewing machine and add one line of stitching on either side of the next grid line. Take the pins out as you come up to them so they do not get run over…but make sure you don’t let beads slip out in the process.
Once you have the row sewn, go back and use the funnel to fill up the next row. I alternated sides each time, so that the filled rows were completed evenly in both directions.
Once all of the rows are filled up, serge the edges of the insert to seal it up securely
The next step is to add some way to attach the outer cover. I considered using buttons, but decided that would be too uncomfortable. Instead, I used loops and ties to make attachments that were simple and reliable, but still soft. There will be loops attached to the muslin weighted insert, and ties attached to corresponding locations on the outer cover.
Attach the loops to the weighted insert
Once the loops are attached, ties should be attached to corresponding locations on the inside of the outer cover. To attach the cover, simply tie the ties onto the loops using the same knot you’d use on a shoelace.
