Sensory Weighted Blanket

 Weighted Blanket for help with Autistic/ Sensory Children Tutorial

In honor of Autism Awareness month (April), there is no better time then to roll out my Weighted blanket tutorial. 

I made this blanket for my sweet little 3 year old who has been diagnosed with Sensory Perception Disorder (SPD), sometimes called Sensory Integration. Although he is not on the Autism Spectrum, he still has a hard time with many day to day activities and situations due to the way his brain senses the area around him. 

To read more about SPD or Autism, please visit the following links:

SPD Foundation 

Autism Speaks

A sensory blanket is a weighted blanket usually made of a breathable fabric, like flannel, filled with some type of weighted material inside. From my research a weighted blanket should not be more than 10% the child's body weight. And.... weighted blankets come in all types of sizes, weights, and textures. My tutorial is for a more portable lap pad or a toddler size blanket, like the one I sewed for my son to sleep under each night, both made the same way, in theory. Weighted blankets can be calming because of the weighted pressure onto the body. Similarly in how weighted vests work. Weighted blankets are very expensive to purchase, so if you can make them yourself you will be saving yourself a fortune. 

The reason they are so expensive? They are VERY labor intensive. 

Here are some sizes of weighted blankets:

Lap Pad (ex. car)- 18 inch x 24 inch

Toddler size- 36x 52

Twin size- 43x 75

You can make yours any size, depending on your child's height, weight or needs. 

Here's how I made my blanket:

Some of these pics are a blend of the lap pad and bigger blanket, both made the same way

I gathered my supplies:

Flannel fabric, one solid, one print

Weighted plastic pellets (like what is inside a stuffed animal or beanie baby, got mine on amazon.com)

Pillow filling (I recycled an old pillow)

Strips of ribbon, various textures (silky, grossgrain) ( I am adding tags to go around the edges to add another sensory component to the blanket, my son loves to chew on and pull and twist tags)

Construction Fabric and solid to match, 4 lbs of pellets

Materials

Then laid out the fabric and cut the pieces to size allowing some room for the seams about 1/2 inch all around.

Put right sides together and cut to size needed

With right sides together pin the material together about one inch in **.
Just pin it together when you add the tags.
** Or if you do not want tags you can pin without adding ribbon like he picture shows.

My mix of "tags" ribbon about 3 inches long.

Fold the ribbons in half and place them in-between the fabric about an inch in. And pin. 

The folded part goes inside of the fabric. The cut ends face outward. Sometimes its hard to envision how it will work once turned right side out. I am telling you this is the easiest way to construct it, from lots of trial and error. 

I placed them about every 4 inches or so, on 3 sides of the blanket, leaving one side of the fabric unattached a long side not a short side. 

See pins?

Closeup of pins

Then I ironed all of the blanket and got ready to sew.

I sewed a straight stitch the entire length of the blanket sewing over the ribbons. Do this around all 3 sides of blanket.

Then cut off any excess.

 This is what it looks like when flipped inside out.

Looking good.

Then I ironed the whole thing again. Pressing the tags at the seams.

Then I sewed again a straight stitch, one pressure foot width to anchor the ribbons again. This is essential to keep the tags attached. (Kids drag them around by the tags so they need to be strong)

++ Now would have been a good time to sew the raw edges of the open side neatly before proceeding. See my ++ note below regarding learning my lesson, and making it easier to close up later when I made the lap pad. 

**At this point I had my mom embroider my sons name on the blanket, she owns an embroidery company (lucky me!). If you wanted to add a name or initials, now would be a good time to do it so that the blanket can be simply opened to have it stitched. 

Now time for the pellets.... I enlisted my daughter to help me with this. I used a food weight scale to help us distribute the weight evenly across the blanket. I believe in the end I wanted the blanket to be about 4 pounds. 

I can't remember exactly what the measurements or math was but essentially I did some simple division Each pocket does not have to be perfectly measured. We measured them out and put them in little cups, I believe they were appx 2.5 oz each. I would be lying if I did not mention doing all of this measuring felt a little illegal. ;)

As my daughter made a ton of little cups of pellets, I started sewing again. This time, it was time to sew pockets for the pellets to be held. 

I came in about 4 inches and sewed creating a row about 4 inches thick. This creates your first long column. Then move over about another 4 inches and sew, the entire length of the blanket. Remember you will still have the top (long side) open, and one side closed. 

Then fill the columns with the pellets, each column till you reach the end. 

 Then stuff in some filling to make the pocket softer. Use a good handful, I opened an old pillow and recycled the stuffing from it for the filling. Use probably a little more than the pic shows.

**Now comes the hard part... stuffing the blanket, because the stuffing wants to get stuck to the sides of the  flannel. First I had my daughter take her small arms and stuff it down, until she grew tired of that (crying/ wining/ sulking/drama!). Then I had the bright idea to use a long cardboard roll (like you would have left over from a wrapping paper tube or fabric bolt) and stuff the stuffing to the bottom so that it and the pellets mix. 

Two columns filled.

Then sew across the entire length of the blanket creating a pocket square.

Tip: This is when the blanket becomes very heavy and cumbersome, try and have lots of patience when sewing this part, be careful not to dump out all of the contents when you begin to sew.

Then, fill all pockets with pellets and stuffing, and sew until you are finished.

To close up the blanket, you can add a few more tags and sew to finish. Or, for no tags on the other side simply fold in the edges and pin, then sew a top straight stitch. 

++ The picture below shows the lap pad. On this one I had already sewed the raw edges closed neatly, so I only had to pin and sew both edges together. They were already finished. 

Pinning to close.

Finished Lap pad!

Finished blanket

Happy, Happy children!

Tip: Please be careful as to figure out how much weight your little one can carry. At first, I thought I needed to add more weight to the blanket, but 4 pounds was about all he could carry, so I think for now the weight is good. He drags this thing EVERYWHERE (Linus style) so it did not need to be any heavier. If you are making a blanket that will essentially stay on a bed and not be moved, it can be heavier. Though not more than 10% of child's body weight. 

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 

Drop me a line. 

Like us on Facebook. 

Thanks, Kristen

Refurbished 1940's Hollywood Regency Chandelier

Refurbishing a Chandelier

Hello All!

This is not really a tutorial but merely a "brag" about this beautiful chandelier and how I found it. 

I am currently helping a friend redesign her spa and beauty boutique. I was out on a mission to find the perfect chandelier for the hallway of the space. My second trip to the Habitat for Humanity restore led me to this beautiful chandelier. I saw it hanging, and claimed it as mine, luckily, because it had just been hung on the sales floor that day!

I did not take a before picture (not sure why :/) but found one on an Etsy listing, photo credits

 Charmed by Vintage. 

The price tag in the store was a whopping $75 dollars! I thought that was a bargain, then I took it to the register and it was 25% off of lighting, soooo in the end I paid $56.25 for this lighting masterpiece!

I took it home, removed all of the crystals and completely took the chandelier apart. I spray painted it chrome with this spray paint, as the brassy look was not really "doing" it for me. 

Chrome by Rust-oleum

I soaked the crystals in a mixture of water and windex, wiped them,  then dried them on a towel overnight. My mom says you can also put them in the dishwasher. But this seemed too tedious for me. 

Then, I put the chandelier completely back together, added new light bulbs and re- attached every single crystal. I tested it in my kitchen using the lighting box that an old chandelier hung from, and viola! it worked. I heart this chandelier! Soooo much. I brought it to my friend at the spa - with tears in her eyes she appreciated it. 

For the record - I genuinely considered keeping the chandelier for myself - but knew it would really change the look of the spa so I resisted the temptation to be selfish with my glorious find. 

Hope you love this as much as I do. 

Drop me a line. 

Like us on Facebook!

Happy building, 

Kristen

Four Pillows from One Shower Curtain

One Shower Curtain= 4 Pillows!

Hello all - my next project....More pillows! This time I got even more creative and tried to make the most of $14.99. I sewed these pillows for a friend of mine.

I suggested while at Target (picking out a comforter and shams) for her to choose a shower curtain (for the fabric only) and I would make her as many pillows as I could from the panel.

Here is the king pin-tuck comforter and shams she purchased.

Target Pin- Tuck comforter, king size. 

Turns out I made 4 nice sized ones, I probably could have made another small one but thought 4 would look great with the two shams she already had.

Here is the curtain panel before:

72x72 shower curtain panel. 

For the inside of the pillows, she gave me an old throw pillow and her pregnancy body pillow- both of these were ready for the trashcan. I love to reuse and repurpose so these pillows allowed me to stuff four of them. 

Pillows behind the curtain to be torn apart later. 

Finished sizes:

3@ appx 20 inch square pillows

1@ 14x 27 rectangular pillow

Here's how I made them, this tutorial is really for just the rectangular pillow, to see a tutorial on how to make the square pillows see my tutorial here canvas drop cloth pillows:

First cut the fabric-

I cut:

3 pieces at 20 inches x 40 inches (for square pillows)

&

1 piece at 28x 27 inches* (for rectangular pillow)
*cut top of shower curtain where the shower curtain rings would attach using slits as button holes. 

Top of curtain where curtain rings would attach. 

Lay them out and fold them over for a visual to see where the buttons will go. 

In my case I wanted the buttons to attach about 1/2 way to 1/4 of the way down on the pillow. 

Then I ironed the fabric completely, ironing about 1/2 inch folds completely around the edges. 

Then I sewed entirely around the fabric with a straight stitch using white thread, sewing completely off the edge each time. 

All edges "hemmed"

Now I folded over the fabric kind of like as if I was folding a blanket or something to create my rectangle. 

First the bottom up... sorry bad pic. 

Then the top over. 

Then sewed the middle part together, right above the button holes, allowing room for buttons. 

Now, time for the ends, I pinned them together:

See pinned edges on right side?

Then sewed the right side together by about 1/4 inch in. ( I did not turn inside out) I wanted "exposed" edges. 

Then 3/4 of the left side, allowing room for stuffing. 

Then I stuffed the pillow:

Then sewed the last 3/4 of the left side by hand with a needle and thread.

Then I sewed, by hand the buttons, four of them, under the flap and "buttoned" each hole. 

I heart them!

And for the square ones:

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Drop me a line. "Like" us on Facebook!

Kristen

Shabby Chic Toddler Bed

Shabby Chic Toddler Bed Tutorial

Here is the before picture:

I was looking to build a toddler bed for a very special little girl. Originally, I was going to take parts of an old broken toddler bed I had and rearrange and fix it. But then..... I passed this older model baby crib that was sitting on the curb at a house on the way to my daughters school. I passed it 3 times.... waiting for the perfect time to load it in my car. So one afternoon, my son and I drove back and I loaded the whole darn thing in my car and drove it home. ( Sigh....still having buyers remorse for selling my much bigger SUV to save on gas money.)

So I unloaded into my shop and got to work. 

The crib included a head and footboard, two large side rails and a spring board for the mattress. 

Here are the overall dimensions of the finished bed:

53.5 inches long

33.5 inches wide (widest part of side trim)

30.5 inches tall- (highest part of headboard)

Prep:

First, I removed all hardware from the crib, the casters, screws etc.

Cutting down:

Starting with creating the headboard and footboard here is what I did:

I took the original crib end piece and cut it down with my circular saw...

I cut off only the inner 5 supports, then removed the bottom panel. 

Then cut the legs down leaving space for the bottom panel - (it has preexisting grooves from the inner rails) to be reattached:

Headboard- height becomes 30.5 inches to tallest part

Building:

Then, I added the back panel back on with my back rubber hammer. It fit perfectly. Sorry don't have a pic of that step. 

Then I repeated the same steps to make the footboard, I had no formula for this I just wanted it about 5 inches shorter. The footboard became 26.25 inches tall. Then I sanded with my orbital sander with 120 grit sandpaper disks, nothing CRAZY, just to get a lot of the shiny finish off of the oak. 

Then I added the hooks on the legs for the the spring board to attach the head and footboard. The hooks came from the original crib. I cut them in half so the springboard could be raised or lowered by about 3 inches each. The upper hooks sits at 9 inches off the ground, the lower hooks sit at 6 inches. 

Next, I needed some support for the bed. I went and purchased two 8 foot 1x6's pre-primed, I cut them to join the headboard and footboard the final size of each rail was at 53.5 inches long. I could have used parts of the railings from the original crib but decided against that.... This just became the more practical way of building the bed. 

I laid a 1x4 below the rail, to ensure the height was the same all around the bed, and clamped the rail to the legs, then screwed on with countersunk bed bolt screws. 

Then I added the mattress to see if everything was fitting properly. The mattress was my mom's it just came out of the beach condo she sold :( 

Lookin good!

Then I attached the other side and still needed more support for the bed.  So I added two more 1x6's (from the original 8 foot pieces) and joined them perpendicular to the side rails, but under the spring board. At last I added a 2x6 on the bottom (scrap piece of wood) to support the entire structure, they were all attached with countersunk deck screws 2.5 inches long.

Added structure, I was not sure how much I would need.

Now, my daughter testing out the weight etc. Pretty sturdy!

Then my daughter helped me by covering up all of the original screw holes from the original crib, we used wood filler. This is her favorite thing to help do in the shop. We allowed them to dry then sanded off the excess.

Then I drug the bed outside to spray kilz it!

Then, I decided the bed needed a little "jazz". So I added some chair railing that I had as scrap so, some pieces I had to join together, to cover up a lot of the rail holes. I clamped them on then used a brad nailer to attach the trim. 

Note: before this point, the bed was able to be taken completely apart, then since I nailed on the trim and caulked it - it would be more difficult to...but could still be taken apart. 

Then I caulked it with my favorite white "alex" brand trim caulk, and wiped the excess with a damp sponge. 

Then, I did a light sand with 220 grit sandpaper, by hand, to the whole thing. 

Then, I painted the whole bed white with left over white paint from another project. 

Glidden semi-gloss in white base- not mixed, just from off the shelf in the paint aisle.

Then - after the paint dried about 4 hours,  to create the "shabby chic" part of the bed, I used my 220 grit sandpaper and sanded over the paint all over by hand... pretty lightly, but harder in places where I wanted to see the oak peek through. Then I wiped all of the dust off with a damp cloth. 

Stenciling:

Then I added a stenciled "k." And scroll-y lines. The k stencil was printed using the font "BlauKai" and the scroll stencil was from the wingdings "Nymphette". I just downloaded free fonts from online and typed them out in pages (my mac software) then blew them up (font at about 270) and printed them out onto sturdy  scrapbooking paper. Then, I cut them out with my eyebrow scissors (lol) to get the fine curve cut out. I taped the stencil on using frog painters tape.

For the stencils- I used a sample paint I have had for years in a drawer, I wanted a bluish-grey color to stay with the "shabby-chic" theme. It's Benjamin Moore- Riviera Azure

I dabbed the paint on using a foam brush, then peeled off the stencil. Same for the letter k on the headboard. 

 After all of this was dry I sprayed about 3 coats of poly-acrylic and allowed to dry overnight. 

Now for the closeups!

I heart it!

Hope you love this tutorial!

Drop me a line- Like us on Facebook. 

Happy Building

-Kristen