Making a Hoodie Blanket (Part 1) the Pattern

I decided that this year because I am dirt poor this year, I would make some Christmas presents as apposed to buying them. I remember when I was a kid, my family used to have these blankets you could walk around in and bundle up inside and they were great. So I figured since I loved them so much I would make a a version of this for my nieces and nephew... shhhhh don't tell them.

My biggest problem is, I have four different sizes to make and didn't want to have to make 4different patterns so I decided I would make one pattern and then customize the measurements tor each kid.

And because it was hard as hell taking my own measurements I got out a doll that is almost the same size in inches as I am in feet.

Step 1: Get Everything Together

you will need a few things to pull this off

1.) Blanket big enough to use for project (or material)
2.) Paper
3.) Marker
4.) Scissors
5.) Tape
6.) Tape Measure
7.) To Scale Doll
8.) Bed Sheet
10.) Pins

Step 2: Make a Scale Blanket

I basically knew the shape of the blanket was 5 foot by seven foot that I would be using. I know my wingspan is about five feet and so is the dolls so I laid the doll on paper and his wing span was about 11 inches so I just laid two pieces of paper side by side using the height of the paper as the new width and taped them thereby giving me a 5 ish by 7 ish scaled blanket to workwith.

Step 3: Make Your Hoodie Out of Paper

Ok so I basically knew how I was going to do it so I just wrapped the paper around the doll where I knew it had to be then cut it using tape as a way to "sew" it together.

The big peice was first and I kinda cut it like a keystone so it would go under the arms and have a flange in the back to attach the hood and sleeves to.

The sleaves I just made a tube the cut down the length about an inch then up abput an inch so i would have a flange in the front as well.

I want this to be as loose as possible so as to give the best manuverability while still being comphy and cozy and warm.

The hood was just a piece I wrapped from one shoulder over the top of the head then back down to the other shoulder then taped the back.

Now button everything up real nice and make sure you like the way it looks.

Step 4: Transfer the Paper Cutouts to One Piece of Paper.

Now unfold all of the paper pieces that you used without ripping them and transfer them to a piece of paper. (Or what you could do is what I did and actually make two blankets and doubled them up so evey time I made a cut I made a similar cut to an uncrinkled piece as well. But this was purelly for ease of picture taking and not needed for the instructable itself.)

I went through and used a marker on all the cuts in the first pictures so you could see where the cuts were.

In the first Photo I had darkend in the areas that were Scrap but accidently darkened the front flanges, but in the second photo you can see they were undarkened.

It helps to darken any area that is going to be scrap so you know where the scrap is and when you hav extra fabric to play with.

Step 5: Measure Everything

Now just go through and measure everything using actual meaurements.

I rounded up to the nearest easy measureement, in this case it was halves and quarters but if you need it to be more presice I guess you could do it with eights.

Mark all the measuremnet out on the paper where they go.

Step 6: Do the Math

Now you have to actually measure the blanket and the paper. My blanket was 70 inches high by 90 inches long, and my paper was 11 inches wide and 16 inches long.

Now we have two different mmeasurment to convert. Hieght and width.

The hieght was 70/11=6.36
And the width was 90/16=5.87

so now go through and every measurment that is width wise multiply it by 5.87, and everything going hieght wise multiply by 6.36

In mine I had heights of

8.5
1.25
1.25

an respectively

54.06
7.95
7.95

which comes out to 69.96

When I actually put these measurments down on fabric I will round the measurements to the closest quarter inch.

Hindsight being 20/20 I probly should have started out with a scale blanket that was exactly proportionate to the actual blanket so when I converted I would have only one number to convert to uinstead of two, but as I said iwant this to be a little loose so I wanst too worried about getting it exaclty as I would for say an actual shirt or something.

Step 7: Transfer the Pattern to a Sheet

Once you have all your measurements transfer your pattern to a sheet using the marker the tape measure and the measurements you just calculated.

Its best to find a nice big place to lay it out but if not just make do like I did and battle through it.

Step 8: Cut Out Your New Full Size Pattern

Following the lines you just drew, cut out your new pattern. dont throw away the scrap you may need it to make last minute alterations.

Step 9: Find a Midget

Since this is for a kid and I am over 300 pounds I had to con my wife into being my life size doll. If you cant do that any midget will do just stay away from the drunken midgets as the person has to stand real still or else the're not a doll but a pin cushion.

Step 10: There You Have It

Well there you have it a full size pattern to make your hoodie blanket. Now all you have to do is mark everything exactly where it is and then unpin the whole thing and lay it out on your fabric and you are good to go.

Right now I dont have the blankets I will actually cut so I will have to waite for that part but once I get the fabric I will upload som photos of the finished hoodies.

Well I hope this helps someone. Mom taught me how to sew when I was a kid but never taught me how to make a patternt so I had to improvise. Its probably way different than the way your supposed to do it but this worked for me.