Anyone else love the feeling of the x-ray poncho at the dentist? I’d never heard of a weighted blanket until this thread but I’ve wanted an blanket made of that material since I was 6 years old.
Excuse me for saying this, but, really, you can’t afford it? Think about the cost per use. You will use this 8 hours per night, 364 nights per year. It’s going to come out to about a penny an hour if it lasts two years and it will probably last longer. (No, I did not do the math.)
I have never understood people being stingy with themselves for things that are going to help them sleep. Sleep is important! Being comfortable while you sleep is NOT a luxury.
You can get a full-sized 2-inch memory foam mattress topper on Overstock.com for about $60. Cover that with a queen-sized duvet ($20-30) et voila! Still not cheap, but this way you can wash the duvet when needed. A lot of those expensive weighted blankets can’t be washed.
Be sure to get the duvet a size larger to accommodate the extra width. Also, you may need to air out the topper for 4-5 days before using it. They can have a terrible smell when you first open them.
If you need to go super-cheap, then just go to the thrift shop and buy a few blankets. Run them through the wash with bleach, then again without, and dry on high heat. (To kill any bugs/germs.) Stack them up and put plastic clips here and there on the edges to keep them together.
Again, cover with a duvet in the next size up.
It’s probably impossible, but what I would really like is to find something that is weighted, but not overly warm for in the summer. Like a weighted sheet instead of a weighted blanket. I like the heaviness on me, but I don’t need the warmth.
Wow, this is really ticking me off. I’m finding these in the $17-50 range wholesale (100 minimum order, includes shipping. But I haven’t found anyone selling them individually for less than $200. There’s just no excuse for that.
Rhiannon, what you want is a true 1200 thread count. Overstock has them occasionally for around $120/set, but you have to be careful. Make sure it says 100% cotton, and look for the words “long-staple” (“Egyptian” != “long-staple”) Check the shipping weight, and make sure it’s at least 12 pounds for a king sized set.
I get what you’re saying, but no, I cannot afford it. It’s not about cost per use, it’s about not having the money upfront. I absolutely need to do whatever I can to improve my sleep, that’s true, which is why I’m trying to find a weighted blanket I can afford.
Do you mean a duvet cover or an actual duvet? I would guess you meant duvet cover but I could also see the sense in putting a duvet itself over the weighted blanket because it would add even more weight.
I’ve never had my hands on a weighted blanket so I don’t know how evenly the weight is distributed. The X-ray drapes seem to have it well distributed (sitchensis, you’re not the only one who likes those!). I would expect they’re pretty expensive, though.
For people who have handled such a blanket: how would the following work?
Take two sheets of the desired size.
Sew them together in long straight channels, about 3/4 inch wide - basically you’d make a lot of long, thin pockets.
Then get a whole bunch of washers - ideally stainless steel as I don’t know how well zinc-plated ones would hold up in the laundry (though if you put it in a duvet cover you wouldn’t need to launder it).
Slide a bunch of washers into a pocket. Put a stitch or two through the center of each washer to hold it in place. Repeat.
Enough to make a covering might add up, price-wise - e.g. 100/box runs about 11 bucks a box). If each washer is a half inch (you could get larger?) then a 4-foot-wide blanket would would require close to 100 per stripe (48 inches, 2 per inch, = 96 washers). So, 10 dollars per stripe - and I’m assuming you’d want at least 4 feet square overall, so that’s quite a few stripes.
I’m wondering if you could mimic the effect using stuff you have around the house, to get a feel for whether it will actually help. Say, pile a couple of winter coats on top of your bedding (and run the A/C extra cold that night so you don’t get cooked alive!).
The suggestion of trying a moving blanket is pretty interesting and might be a very affordable solution. You’d definitely want to put some kind of cover over it because a) it’s not going to feel good against your body, and b), those things are NOT attractive bedroom decor. But I see one at Amazon for 12.99 (Harbor Freight has one even cheaper but aren’t they supposed to be utterly horrible from a quality standpoint?).
I can’t speak for your plan (seems like it’d work though) but the sensory blankets I’ve seen have been stitched in a quilted pattern with each “diamond” filled with the weighted material. I imagine metal weights could work but these had some granular material in them like very small pea gravel. Couldn’t tell you exactly what though.
Edit: Looking online, I think the fill may be glass beads.
I accidentally made a weighted blanket once by making a duvet cover out of two heavy cotton flannel sheets for a cotton-filled duvet. Thing was so heavy it was like sleeping under a large dog. If you don’t need something like a lead apron, I can’t imagine improvising wouldn’t work.
Use pennies? Glue them on? Then fasten another cheap blanket on top? I think 400 pennies ($4!) might be enough weight. (My grandma used to put pennies in the hems of curtains she made so they would hang right. You could buy weights for that, but even then pennies were cheaper.)
Are there weighted blankies that “breathe” enough to use in the summer? 
I get hot when I’m sleeping, but I dislike not having covers over me – easier for monsters to snatch me away in the night
Pennies should indeed work - though you’d want to run a stitch alongside each one once the top blanket was put in place, as I imagine the kind of flexing a blanket undergoes would mean the adhesive would come off pretty quickly.
Basically you’d wind up with a covering that had a penny-sized grid stitched into it - much the same as if you used metal washers. Either way would be a fair bit of work, but if you have a sewing machine, cheaper than purchasing a ready-made weighted blanket.
We have a heavy quilted bedspread that we take off the bed entirely during the summer. Last night I was not feeling well, and was a bit cool; the blanket we keep on the bed would have been enough, warmth-wise, but I got that quilted bedspread out and used that. It really, really helped.
So - if warmth is not a problem, a heavy quilted bedspread would be great - but I imagine one of the benefits of the specially-made blankets is that they don’t trap as much heat.
Not glass beads. They are a poly fill/ machine washable synthetic. You can stuff stuffed animals or bean bags with them too. I don’t think they are expensive. Michael’s or Joanne’s should have them. Amazon even.
Essentially, take a lightweight duvet cover or even two sheets and stick them together, but leave a hole to add the beads. Either add your full desired amount, and then massage things around to make your rows and squares, or do a row’s worth, stuck closed the row with beads into it, and then stitch each square. Repeat until done.
You could add a duvet cover over it all to get flannel in winter, to wash pet fur off only that. I have successfully washed the entire thing.