Originally Posted by jjtripletmom

Attached is a picture of a weighted blanket I made for my daughter with autism. It is actually what began my quilting hobby. After I made this blanket my other daughters wanted me to make "blankets" for them.

I did I guess what you would call the bean bag technique. I cut rectangles, folded the rectangle in half, sewed (by hand as I didn't have a sewing machine at that time) around the other 3 sides leaving a area to turn it inside out. Then I used a funnel to fill the bag about 1/3 of the way full with polly pellets, then sewed it shut. I then sewed then together to make the blanket.

This method if very difficult to determine the over-all weight. There is a formula/ratio of weight of child to the weight of the blanket. You don't want it too heavy, but if it isn't heavy enough the child will not receive enough deep pressure. My daughter's blanket was actually too heavy for my daughter when it was first made. She liked the look of it but she didn't really use it because it was too heavy for her. But as she has grown it is appropriate for her now.

The polly pellets are good to use because they are washable. I used a silky feel edging as kids with autism are very sensory and thought she may like to rub the silky edge. The polly pellets also allow the child to kind of manuver the pellets in it's little bag. That can also meet some sensory needs.