Quality time with the No Sew Blanket

So far in my crafting world there have been very few things that I count as a shared experience with my son. I once tried to teach him to spin on a spindle but apparently he already knew everything. (well excuuusse me!) Needless to say that didn't go very well and now there is a handmade spindle with some yarn on it sitting around the house. Perhaps the problem was that he had seen me do so much of it that he figured he wasn't going to need my help. I don't know... that was about a year ago or so.
Recently we had a break through with this little activity from CraftSanity. Sure, it might not be the original creation of the blogger.. most crafty projects aren't (as you will see in this post) but it was in the right place at the right time. In fact, it wasn't just my son and I... even my husband participated in the breaking and assembling of crayons. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if, in my delirium, I didnt think our obviously non-working stove would work. If it cooks chicken in 8 minutes flat and never clicks off at 400 degrees... well, you can't melt crayons in it either. So instead of 15 minutes it was like 5.5 minutes and some smoke were the paper cups were trying to burn. This is why adults should always supervise their kids craft projects. (And sometimes adults should have another adult supervising them.)

Our next little project happened this weekend. I had acquired the instructions for a no-sew fleece blanket and thought I would try my hand at it. After a few days it dawned on me that this would be a good project for my son and I to do together. With this project, instead of me making something for him, he got to make it for himself with my supervision of course.


First, we did a search for fleece materials that would coordinate. (He has a love for all things elephants so you can see what he settled on.) The instructions were obtained from my job under the guise of a "Lunch and Learn" program. What they really wanted to do was provide us with the same employee morale benefit without having to sacrifice time at the end of the quarter. (So... if you recognize this packet... ummm... you don't know me.)
Anyway, the project really only consist of 3 yards of material, scissors, pins and manual labor. The manual labor was provided by the (near) nine year old.

To start the blanket we laid the two fleeces down with the right sides facing out. Then we were instructed to smooth the fabric down to remove wrinkles and any bunching. In other words stare at the blanket and your child and remind yourself that the end result will be HIS BLANKET!


So now that we are done adding more removing the wrinkles, its time to pin the fabric together.


Once you have secured the two pieces of fabric to each other you cut away the selvage edges and trim the fabric to that they are both the same size.



(Sorry, I just like the child labor shots. Its a boot camp around here I tell you!)

Next we cut 4 inch squares from the corner to start the fringe. The packet stated you can also do 5 inch fringe but you have to create a five inch corner cut instead of 4 inches.


... and then measuring the size of the tassels....

.... cutting the tassels....


(*ahem* supervising...)



... tying tassels... That was a two person job...























... and finally the blanket with a happy 9 year old holding it up.


All in all, it took about 2 1/2 hours to complete the blanket. It was tons of fun to do with him and he was able to do most of the work himself. Plus, he hasn't gone to sleep one night without it covering him since we made it. I recommend this project for parents who want something to do together with their child(ren). However, its is always up to the parents to determine the child's maturity, temperment etc... before undertaking a crafting project like this. (Trust me... there are some nine year olds I wouldn't trust with a pair of scissors even if I was doing the cutting for them.)

So yay for quality time with TheBoy!

If people are interested in the detailed directions I followed let me know and I will summarize and paraphrase in great detail. If you made it this far, thanks!