A Blanket That Is a Pillow

Last month I made a fleece blanket that folds into a pocket to form a pillow. It was to be a birthday gift for a three year old. It was fairly straightforward, except that when I moved to Texas I removed the spool cap from the sewing machine that I brought with (to keep it safe) and I could not find it when it came time to sew.

I still don't know what happened to the spool cap. The spool of thread that I took off when I removed the spool cap was right there but no cap even though I took them off at the same time.

That was the large spool cap, which is the only one I ever use. The medium spool cap does not normally work on normal sized thread spools but it was what I had so I used it. What a nightmare! The thread kept catching on the little cut in the top of the spool and breaking. I guess I am lucky that the needle did not break.

So, as a workaround I cut a circle slightly larger than the medium spool cap out of poster board. That worked. It is not a permanent solution, of course. I did find one online and ordered it and it arrived and all is good in the world of my sewing machine working well again.

The blanket is fleece on one side and that soft swirly fabric on the other side. I think it's called Minky or somesuch. Most of the instructions I saw when investigating how to make the blanket said to make the pocket 18" but quite a few said to make the pocket 16". So I made it 12". Yeah, I had a logical reason for that. Don't do that. Make it 16" or 18".

The two fabrics are fairly thick so folding the blanket into the pocket is a struggle and a tight squeeze and after wrestling it into place the pillow is as hard as a rock. If it was just a single layer of fleece then the 12" would have worked nicely. But it's not. It's two layers of thick fabric.

The birthday girl loved it anyway!

If cramming the fabric into the pocket is too much of a hassle she can always use the pocket for a favorite bedtime book or slippers or a snack in the car instead.