Weighted Sensory Blanket

My child likes loves sensory input. Every day we jump on pillows and he gets massages on his legs and back. I thought that we enjoy adding a weighted blanket to his repertoire and instead of paying $100+ for one I made one for about $25.

I used a yard each of coordinating fabrics. BB chose the dinosaurs and we found an orange chevron that matched. I recommend that one side is a basic (solid, stripes or chevron) and the other side as a fun pattern. It's also helpful when sewing this type of blanket if one of your fabrics has a pattern with straight lines.

What you'll need:

2 pieces of fabric

Poly Pellet Beads 

A sewing machine

A scoop

A big table

NOTE: This is not a full tutorial. For a full description of how to create your own weighted sensory blanket, I recommend using this pattern from Craft Nectar.

Poly Pellets were not easy to find. You can order them online but I was too impatient so I went to 4 craft stores before I found what I needed. I got them (on sale) for $2.39/8 ounce bag. How much to by: The blanket should be 10% of of the weight of your child. For example, BB is under 30 pounds so I put in six 8oz bags of pellets to make a 3 lb. blanket.

Then you simply sew your two pieces of fabric together (facing each other) on three sides. Turn it right-side-out and sew 4" columns. I put about 1/3 cup of pellets into each column and then sewed perpendicular (4" so they're squares) to close them off. The blanket starts to get heavy so it helps if the whole thing is on a large table as you sew. The project took about 2 nap times (maybe 4 hours) and I'm so happy with it. It's totally washable and small enough to transport. And, best of all, it really seems to calm him down!