What to do with a blanket?

[S.C.M.]

So I've had a blanket given to me - to be used for whatever I want, cutting sewing, no need to return it. It's at least partly wool, as it has felted a bit, although you can still see the warp and weft of it if you look really close. It has a small hole and a small rip in it, and has faded, possibly from pink, to a somewhat rose-fawn colour.
I was wondering what could be done with it. It was originally double-bed size, it's shrunk a bit, but it fits neatly on my (double) bed, so I was considering just sewing it up and using it as a blanket, maybe as a camp/hammock blanket. I'm open to suggestions though, even if I don't do them now, I might get another blanket that would suit the project

 

[dewi]

How about a chair in the woods?

[video=youtube;1Z_67KsqFTM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z_67KsqFTM[/video]

 

[S.C.M.]

How about a chair in the woods?

Very neat idea, even if I was expecting more... permanent alterations. I might do that if I decide to take it out. That looks like a lovely blanket in the video!

 

[Tengu]

Since its a double I would be tempted to be a wet blanket and suggest you keep it intact. Good blankets are getting scarce these days, dobles in particular.

 

[Robson Valley]

Make yourself a nice baggy house coat and a jacket.
Just for those mornings to warm up while the wood stove gets going.
Stand still. Watch the morning fog burn off, over a cup of tea/coffee.
For me, the rest of the day can go to Hello until I get these things done for my own head.

 

[S.C.M.]

Make yourself a nice baggy house coat and a jacket.
Just for those mornings to warm up while the wood stove gets going.
Stand still. Watch the morning fog burn off, over a cup of tea/coffee.
For me, the rest of the day can go to Hello until I get these things done for my own head.

I have a hard time starting in the morning too, and need a lot of time to "get up"(getting out of bed is not the same as getting up to me), but well... have a look at my location! I'm currently sitting with my outwards door wide open, with no shoes, wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a thin woolly jumper! that said, I am a little cold and today is mild. It does get colder at night though, just not really inside the house. Cold is a generally outside thing around here! I suppose McBride is slightly chillier?

So we've got the following suggestions so far:
Fix up the tear and keep it as a blanket
Blanket it, then use it as a chair
Make it into a house coat/Jacket

Keep the ideas coming!

 

[dewi]

In general, I reckon it is far more useful as a blanket... I forget the name of it, but there is a type of coat that monks make with a wool blanket just by the way they fold it around themselves... you can use it as a chair and as, um, a blanket lol But you can also use it as a carryall depending how you fold it and tie it... then in summer, picnics on the lawn

 

[S.C.M.]

(...)I forget the name of it, but there is a type of coat that monks make with a wool blanket just by the way they fold it around themselves(...)

hmm... it's not called a "kilt" is it? I'd actually like a proper great-kilt-size plaid, but it miiiight get me in trouble wearing it
I was also thinking of making matchstick cloak (dunno if it's the right name) which is a blanket with thongs in it to tie 'round your neck as a cloak. However, nowhere really appropriate to wear it

 

[Laurentius]

Recently as an experiment I went for a walk in the rain, with no other upper covering but a Welsh woolen cape, basically a "Birrus Brittanicus" in design. It was not a torrential downpour I will grant you, but I was warm enough and dry enough. You cannot underestimate wool.

 

[S.C.M.]

hmmm. I've just realized there's a label on my blanket... so much for paying attention
It says "Guaranteed all wool WHITNEY blankets" and very faint at one end (90º to the rest) "second" on the other side of the blanket, held on by the same stitching, it has ummm... two pacman shapeswith a "4" in the second ones mouth and "specification NºID" dunno if that means anything though.
I'm currently wearing the blanket wrapped as a very poor greatkilt, cos all the clothes I put on this morning got wet when it ****** down and I had to put a wayward chicken back in shelter. She's going blind and was about to give up on getting home out of the rain
I can say the blanket's a bit scratchy and too short to fold into a kilt.

 

[tombear]

CC41 means it was made between 1941 and 1952,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC41#Historical_background

Witney near Oxford was the premier blanket making town in Britain for at least a couple of hundred years, I think the last blanket makers there went under in the 1990s, the name was used as a guarantee of quality, I think they made all the Hudson Bay blankets there until production stopped.

ATB

Tom

 

[Jaeger]

Aye Up All,

Don't know if this has featured before but perhaps a tip worth T-ing up -

I was recently in a surplus shop having a mooch around. Also in there were four other blokes, one of whom appeared to be advising the other three on various items of clothing that they might need for outdoor 'activities'.

At a point where they were musing over a nice olive green, 'wool-looking' blanket I came into close proximity.
The 'adviser' asked the store owner if it would be OK if he shaved a small amount of fibre off the blanket to 'test' for wool content - the store owner agreed.
With no more than a pinch of fibre between his fingers the man then promptly set a lighter to it and burned it up!
He looked at the charred fibres, nodded and then smelled them.
He then offered the others to do the same, asking each what they could smell.

The consensus was that it smelled like burned (human?) hair. The man agreed, stating that as there was also no plastic-like residue on his fingers he was satisfied that the blankets were in fact all wool.

 

[tombear]

Yup,the good old burn test. I always step out of the shop to do them with a few threads got with the permission of the staff rather than in the shop as some fibres stink to high heaven when burnt and some flare up quite alarmingly and painfully if they drip onto skin.

Now we have a working printer I'm going to laminate a card to go in my wallet,

http://www.fiber-images.com/Free_Th...ree_reference_charts_fiber_content_guide.html

Is a ok chart but it's too elaborate / large to go on a credit card sized bit of paper and still be readable

ATB

Tom

 

[Laurentius]

hmmm. I've just realized there's a label on my blanket... so much for paying attention
It says "Guaranteed all wool WHITNEY blankets" and very faint at one end (90º to the rest) "second" on the other side of the blanket, held on by the same stitching, it has ummm... two pacman shapeswith a "4" in the second ones mouth and "specification NºID" dunno if that means anything though.
I'm currently wearing the blanket wrapped as a very poor greatkilt, cos all the clothes I put on this morning got wet when it ****** down and I had to put a wayward chicken back in shelter. She's going blind and was about to give up on getting home out of the rain
I can say the blanket's a bit scratchy and too short to fold into a kilt.

You definately have a decent blanket there. You want to google "matchcoat" for the best way to wear one. I went to a conference once, wearing a blanket as a matchcoat, but as it got too warm I adjusted it into something more resembling a great kilt, with the excess thrown over one shoulder.

 

[Tengu]

Oh, you cant cut up a proper Witney.

 

[S.C.M.]

So that's a "don't you dare cut it up!" then? It is a second I think, and there is a thinner patch, part of which has a rip in! Soooo... how do you folks recommend sewing it? herringbone stitch maybe? What kind of thread?
Oh I also have a "Peebles Pleasure All wool made in bonnie scotland" tartan blanket. it's very good and is actually my mums. I'm not allowed to hurt it

 

[dewi]

Found this for monk styling... if thats the right way to describe it...

[video=youtube;i9tlhBXVapU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9tlhBXVapU[/video]

 

[S.C.M.]

Very neat wrapping (although I was thinking Christian monks habits when you first mentioned it) I'll give that a go soonish

 

[dewi]

Very neat wrapping (although I was thinking Christian monks habits when you first mentioned it) I'll give that a go soonish

I think Christian monks where hooded habits... its more like a ankle-length dress than anything else... Laurentius had it with 'matchcoat'... I always think of that one as like a cowboy style.

Like the way the Asian monks wear them though... not sure it would go with a pair of jeans though.

 

[S.C.M.]

I think Christian monks where hooded habits... its more like a ankle-length dress than anything else... Laurentius had it with 'matchcoat'... I always think of that one as like a cowboy style.

Like the way the Asian monks wear them though... not sure it would go with a pair of jeans though.

yeah, they had hoods and enclosed arms! that's why I couldn't figure out how to do it!