A Jen Too Many

A few months ago someone I know was raving about the Slanket and sent a bunch of us a link to the product website. My husband had something rather like this when we got married, only it snapped to make sleeves / unsnapped to be used as a blanket. It had this really nasty lining on the inside, though, that made it very unpleasant to wear, so he refused to touch it. Warm, however, definitely warm, which made it a favorite of mine in spite of the lining.

Since the Slanket is little expensive, I thought it might be a good idea to make something like that for everyone for Christmas. After all, I usually spend all winter with blankets strewn around the house, driving me nuts. Last year I made a couple of quillows but I got tired of refolding them all the time, and this year I don't know where they are.* Individual, this-is-your-responsibility blanket substitutes seemed like a good idea.**

I thought it would be pretty simple to make them, but I couldn't find instructions anywhere! I couldn't even find a commercial pattern. I tried to put it together with what I remembered of our old blanket, but the blankets I'd already gotten weren't quite the right size for that.

What I wound up doing was using two blankets (50"x60"), stitching the short sides together. I left 14" open in the center for the head, and stitched up the rest of the top, leaving the sides and bottom open. Basically a really big, full-length poncho with a somewhat cowl-y neckline. Technically they're sleeveless, but the blankets I used were wide enough to make it feel like you're wearing half or three-quarter length sleeves (depending on the length of your arms.)

It works beautifully - we are all very nice and cozy wearing them. Except that we all tend to keep wearing them when we get up and walk around the house. Since they are rather long (the better to keep your feet warm, my dear!) they tend to sweep along behind us like imitation trains*** and trip us up in front if we don't pick them up and hold them out of the way. Not safe for stairs!

I took a different tack for the girls' wearable blankets. I used one blanket, cut in half, so that I wound up with two pieces of fabric, 30"x50". (Since the fabric was something similar to fleece I didn't have to bother with binding or hemming anything.) Again, I stitched the short ends together, leaving space in the middle for their heads to go through. I measured both girls and cut off the bottom of the blankets at an appropriate length (36" for one and 40" for the other, measured from the nape of the neck to the top of the heel.) With the fabric I cut off the bottom I had enough to make both girls a sash for their blankets, which has made for much happiness.****

Very simple and basic, but like I said, nothing that I was able to find online, or anywhere else for that matter. You'd think that someone at Simplicity or McCall's would have had the brilliant idea that there might be some of us out there who would be interested in making a Slanket / Snuggie / blanket robe / whatever, but no. Pppbbbttthhh to them!
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*Probably in someone's room. Probably The Boy Child's. His room tends to be where everything goes to die.

**Seems like a good idea. In the weeks since Christmas they haven't been strewn around so much, but we'll see what happens when the new-and-fun wears off.

***On the other hand, my floors are cleaner than ever!

**** Granted, this is not necessarily because they have sashes. No, this would be because they now have new "snakes" which have joined their jump ropes, belts, and hair ribbons in being trailed around the house and made to hiss at people. When they are not being pressed into service as leashes for stuffed animals. Or ropes to tie various things up for mysterious reasons.