Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Make your own weighted blanket

I found a way to create your own weighted blanket through the website: sensory-processing-disorder.com
Here are the directions:


Materials:
Blanket sewn in a square pattern
Sand, poly pellets, beans, rice or popcorn
Heavy duty Ziploc bags
Velcro
Extra strength fabric glue


1. Buy a blanket that is a "down alternative," use regular down and you'll have feathers everywhere. Make sure it is sewn with squares, not the long channels. For example: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=108745
2. Count the number of squares. I left a 2 square border all the way around the blanket. For a twin sized blanket it was 48 squares.
3. Buy heavy duty ziploc bags.
4. Buy velcro and extra strength fabric glue.
5. Divide the weight you want the blanket to be by the number of squares. For example: a 15 pound blanket, divided by 48 squares= .3 lbs per square.
6. Put the appropriate amount (I used a food scale) of material in each ziploc bag. There are a lot of different materials you can use-poly pellets, beans, rice, popcorn or sand. I used sand because it was the cheapest. 25 pound bag for $1.50 at the hardware store.
7. Cut one side of the seam for each square on the blanket you will put a bag in. In my case 48.
8. Measure the opening and cut that length of velcro for each square. Again for me 48.
9. Glue the velcro strips to the top and bottom of the opening.
10. Put in a ziploc bag full of material and secure the square with the velcro.


Making a smaller version of this blanket so students could keep on their laps during desk time or carpet time, would be a great adaption for the classroom.

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