Sunday, November 26, 2006

Interlude #1 - The "Snuglet"

I would really like to get my blog up-to-date with projects I've already done, but in the meantime, I continue to work on other projects... and so get farther behind on my blogging.

And so we have interlude #1...

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the Christmas season, aka FRENZY, is upon us. I frequently have a tough time thinking of things to get anyone but my own immediate family, but this year, I think I have the answer.

It's called a "Snuglet" (or Slanket) and it's a blanket with sleeves. I got the idea from a review on http://www.patternreview.com/ . You can see the review here: Snuglet Review. The review includes a link to some very good instructions on how to make a Snuglet.

I liked the idea so much (after all WHO could object to getting a warm snuggly blanket for Christmas?), that for the first time in my life, I made it a point to go to an after Thanksgiving sale. Not on Black Friday... OH NO! Well, I would have gone then, but the fabric I wanted was not on sale on Friday, it was on sale Saturday.

I went hiking with the family on Friday instead. A much more pleasant pastime for me than fighting the shopping crowds. We took a couple of nephews and a niece, along with our two munchkins to a place called Leon Sinks for a 5 mile walk.

On Saturday morning, I got up bright and early, grabbed the younger of my munchkins and went on a fleece fabric mission to Joann's. Altogether, I purchased 28 yards of fleece with various patterns, so I'm glad I went while it was on sale!

After I got home, I spent the afternoon washing all that fleece. (As I understand it, material made of polyester doesn't need to be pre-shrunk. But, I didn't like the "store" smell of the fabric, so I washed it all).

I also started on my first practice snuglet. It looked like an easy enough project to do, and so it was. I finished up the first one this afteroon. Doesn't it look snuggly???

It probably took a total of an an hour-and-a-half to two hours to complete. I'll probably be able to cut it down to an hour or so now that I've got the process down.

I folded the edges twice to bind the edges which made for very, very thick corners. I think I will experiment on the next one to see if I can reduce the bulk by mitering the corners.

Gotta get back to it, I have about 6 more of these to make before Christmas!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it!

What an awesome idea! And an hour? You could sure whip up some Christmas presents in a hurry.

Oh, and I thought of something else, maybe a "biased tape-like" edge would work, too. I think you might have to cut the strips from the fleece though... Hmmm, probably too time consuming. Just throwing some ideas out there :)

Janimé said...

I thought about making bias tape from the fleece as well. But you're right - I would had to have cut the strips from the fleece and didn't really get enough for that.

I could have also used light polyester type "silky" to bind the edges with - but I didn't think of that until just now! :)

Sharon Sews said...

These are so cute! I just saw your review over at Patternreview.