A Rusty Blanket

You know your favorite blanket? The one that's super soft and makes you want to fall asleep the second you touch it. The one that you almost didn't want to use when you first got it because you were scared it would lose it's magic sleeping touch. Well my dog discovered the magic power in mine and that's starting to make me nervous.

This weekend I decided to make Rusty a blanket of his own. I've used this tutorial to make baby blankets before so a dog blanket can't be too different right?

What you'll need:

1 yard cotton fabric of your choosing 

1 yard fleece

scissors

sewing supplies

I measured my fabric out to 90 cm x 105 cm. He's a small pup so this was a good size but you can make yours whatever size you need.

Once that was cut, I laid out the fleece, right side up. You want to make sure the fleece is larger than your cotton piece. [Also don't forget to watch a cheesy high school show, like Pretty Little Liars, while doing this project. Not even embarrassed.]

Place the cotton fabric (right side down) on top of the fleece. These fabrics stick together something fierce so I rolled my cotton piece up and then unfolded it onto the fleece to make sure everything laid flat and was straight. 

Pin the two pieces of fabric together.

These fabrics slide a bit during sewing so take the time to get the pinning done well. This was the most time consuming part of the blanket. Mine still didn't end up perfect but it was worth the extra effort.

Once pinned, trim the fleece so that it's the same size as the cotton piece.

 

You're ready to sew!

 

Sew around the whole blanket but leave a small opening on one of the sides so that you can slip the blanket. I did a 5/8" seam .

Flip the blanket so that the right sides are facing out. You may want to clip the corners so that they lie flat when the blanket is right side out. I didn't want to at first but ended up going back and clipping them. Press the blanket (especially the edges and the small opening).

[insert pictures that I forgot to take because I was on a roll with the sewing here]

Once flipped and pressed, sew around the entire blanket. I did a 3/8" seam for this section to be sure everything was secure. Be sure that you close up the small opening here. The smaller seam will help make sure it closes up nicely.

Now just trim off hanging threads and you've got yourself a blanket!

It's only been a few hours but I think Rusty is warming up to his new blanket quite nicely.

Thank goodness. 

Scripture Journal

Hi, My name is Alex. And I'm a journal hoarder.

For a while now I've been eyeing some scripture journals at Deseret Book. I like the format of several of them but it's so hard to justify paying $20 when I know I can make one that's similar. 

So that's exactly what I did.

I scoured through as many journals as I could find and then pulled the best pieces to form my ultimate scripture journal. Here's how it turned out.

I opted for a binder format. This will allow me to add or take out pages as necessary. I like the versatility of it; I plan on using this for years so it'll be nice to know I can write as much as I want to and not have to worry about running out of space. 

This journal is specifically for the Book of Mormon but you could also do it by topic or other books of scripture. I divided everything by Book so that I could easily find each chapter if I want to go back and add quotes, references, etc.

Each chapter has a Study page and Lesson page. The Study page includes specific items such as people in the chapter, principles, other related scriptures, and definitions. There is also a section for personal reflections; a place to write promptings, ideas, or things to pray about. 

At the end I did a couple pages to write my Testimony. This could be used to write your testimony as you go, or to write before and after; however you want to use it.

I've only done a couple chapters so far but it has been such a great experience. A tool like this will come in handy once the husband and I have children of our own. A good scripture journal can become the ultimate teaching tool.

*If you're interested in using these templates, email me at homehappyhealth@gmail.com*