Weighted blankets - poly pellets

[Biffa44]

I am thinking of making a weighted blanket (they are so expensive to buy) and wondered if anyone else had done this. After watching a few Youtube videos I reckon it looks fairly straightforward, but am a bit unsure about what poly pellets to order. The vids were American, so any suppliers mentioned would not be any good for me, but searching online for UK supplies, the poly pellets I've seen are intended for bean bags so I have no idea if they will be heavy enough, be OK in the washing machine etc. If anyone has any hints or tips I would be very grateful.

Plenty available on eBay.

The whole blanket needs to weigh no more than 10% of the weight of the person using it.

Ebay or Amazon are pretty good. If you search for polly pellets there are loads, you want the ones for toy filling, most on Amazon say suitable for weighted blankets.

Definitely avoid the polystyrene beanbag filler, its incredibly light so no good for a weighted blanket.

I can't say I've dare put the resulting blanket in the washing machine, more for the worry about the machine than the blanket. However, its been handwashed loads of times and always come out fine. Being plastic the beans don't hold any water so it dry reasonably quickly even without the spin cycle.

I made one and just bought the plastic pellets on eBay. It was quite easy to make. I worked out the weight of the pellets for each pocket of the blanket and weighed as I went.

I plan to make one using BB pellets. I have managed to get them very cheap.

My mum made DD2's - we ordered weighted toy pellets from Amazon for it. One tip she found out - put a little bit of wadding in the outermost pockets around the edge - it makes it nice to snuggle up to at the top particularly if you've got a sensory seeking little creature like DD2 who likes to rub the soft squidgey edge up against her cheeks for comfort.

I think basically she used an old charity shop quilt, reinforced the outer sewn edges and then made it into pockets from there on so it wasn't a very massive job. DD2 loves it (although it's getting a bit light for her now) and asks to be turned into a big fluffy marshmallow with it wrapped all around her (it's pink) when she's feeling stressed.