Nikki's Blanket Project

My good friend has a tender heart. She saw some photos and videos of the elderly nursing home victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.

ABC News Report

Nikki knows they were rescued, and she knows their physical needs will be taken care of. What about their spiritual needs, their emotional needs? Everyone is busy. The clean up efforts are massive, and families and children need to be cared for. Nikki is concerned that the physical needs of the elderly will be met, but their emotional needs will be neglected. They still need love, just like everyone else.

Her vision is to make 100 fleece blankets and 100 pillowcases to send to her contact in Houston who will deliver the blankets and pillowcases to the residents of the nursing homes so those elderly men and women will know that someone loves them, someone cares about them, and someone wants to brighten their day.

I've put the tutorial/pattern in a PDF, and I'm posting it here for anyone in our area who would like to help but won't be able to attend our sewing day.

The goal is 100 blankets and 100 pillowcases by the end of September!

We don't have enough fleece for 100 blankets yet.
We do have quite a pile and are ready to get started!

*     *     *     *     *

Materials and Supplies

• 2 yards of fleece
• 75/11 or 80/12 Stretch or Universal needle.
• Pins or clips
• Walking foot if you have one
• Hem is 1/2" (or 3/4" if you're more comfortable with a bigger hem)

Trim fleece to approximately 60” x 90”

(Most fleece is 58”-60” wide. 
You’ll need 2 yards per blanket
for a 60” x 72” blanket.) 

Trim off selvedge edges, and square up the other two sides.

Use corner template (or a small plate or bowl) to trim all four corners. 

You can print the template above. Make sure the measurements are accurate, each side should be 4"

If you have a Creative Grids Multi-Size Curved Corner Cutter you can use either the 2" radius corner or the 3" radius corner cutter.

Fold edges under 1/2” (or 3/4" if you're more comfortable with a bigger hem).

Pin or clip in place.

Best needle choices are a size 75/11 OR 80/12 Stretch or Universal needle.

Use a walking foot (if you have one) and sew the hem with a wide zig-zag stitch or a 2-step zig-zag stitch. Be careful to not stretch the corners as you sew around them.

Sew around all four sides.

Note: We are sewing around all the sides, and using curved corners. We don't want knots or lumps to accidentally get caught under someone and cause bed sores. Please do not make the knotted fringe blankets for this project.

Walking foot, and a regular zig zag stitch, or a two-step zig sag stitch.

Zig-zag as close to the cut edge as you can, cover the cut edge if possible.
This will look nicer, and it will hold the hem flat so it doesn't
roll to the right side of the blanket.

We'll add the embroidery when you're done.

Amber at Embroitique has graciously given us permission to use their design on a few machines for this project. If you have an embroidery machine and can embroider 10 or more blankets, please let Nikki or Tara know. We'll get you the file. 

If you do the embroidery, you get to choose the colors.

Thank you so much for visiting! If you are able to help please contact Nikki, Sue Ann, or me and we'll be happy to answer questions or pass along some fabric for pillowcases or fleece for blankets. If you have fabric or fleece, please contact Nikki so she can have a good count of our progress.

You can also find us on Facebook at Blankets for Houston's Elderly. We'll be posting updates and answering questions there as well.

This year our goal is to

Do Something Kind
for Someone Else
Every Day!