How to Make Soft Blankets:
Why do we want to build a better blanket when there are
millions of blankets for sale today? The truth is most blankets and bedding on
the market are not made with high-quality fabrics. They’re quickly
manufactured, using cheap textiles. After just a few washes, the blankets look
old and dingy, and will start to shed or pill
Here are
the seven steps we take to create the softest blankets.
Step
1: How to pick the best fleece fabric for blankets
You
can see and feel the difference between our fleece blankets and other fleece
blankets. The difference starts with the fabric we choose. Most fleece blankets
are made from 144-filament yarns. We use 288-filament yarns. These fine
filament micro-fiber yarns are part of what give blankets their key qualities
of soft, plush, and warm.
Then we
increased the weight of the base fleece fabrics too, making them at 14 ounces
per square meter or 400 grams per square meter. The extra weight gives the
blanket a more weighted drape. If you hold the blanket up in the air and drop
it, you’ll see how a blanket “drapes”. The drape of a nice blanket fabric is
important in how the blanket will drape when folded over the edge of a bed or
as a throw blanket, over a chair or sofa in the living room or den. The heavier
blanket weight also allows for better surface coverage and helps make a more
durable blanket that lasts. And the extra weight also helps make the blanket a
warmer blanket.
Once we have the best quality of fabrics, we then proceed
with the next step.
Step
2: How to make a blanket feel soft & cozy
To make a
soft and cozy blanket, we wanted to take the extra steps to ensure that our
blankets will not shed or pill and are durable enough to withstand multiple
washes.
To do
this, we first raise the pile of a blanket by repeatedly brushing the blankets
with brushing bristles. This is what makes the blanket lustrous and soft.
Most
fleece companies brush their fleece once or twice to make the fleece look nice
or feel soft. But to ensure that a blanket feels soft and stays soft and to
prevent fleece from shedding, a blanket must be brushed again and again. We
brush our fleece 6 times on both sides of the blanket fabric because a blanket
should look and feel soft and cozy on both sides of the blanket—not just the
side you can see.
Most companies only brush their blankets once or twice, for that instant soft
sheen. However, a blanket must be brushed multiple times on each side to
guarantee lifelong softness, without any shedding or pilling. Our blankets are
brushed six times so that you can enjoy the soft luster for years to come!
Step
3: How to Cut Fleece Blankets for Any Bed Size
Typically,
a fleece blanket manufacturer could stack and cut two-dozen pieces blankets
at a time. Our fleece blankets are cut by hand on a custom-made cutting table,
one blanket at a time.
Two
cutters work at a table; they carefully inspect each piece of fabric for any
possible defects. The blankets are cut with a sharp electric blade. All our
blankets are cut with precision, to ensure that every blanket is consistent.
Our
blankets are cut generously, typically just a little bigger than might be
needed, but customers tend to appreciate a little extra blanket to drape the
edges of their beds. A twin blanket is 60x90” or an extra-long twin blanket is
60x96”. Queen fleece blankets are 90x90”, King Sized fleece blankets are
108x90” and oversized King blankets are cut at 120x90”. (Note: Luster Loft line
runs 2” shorter in length across all blanket sizes). For a complete list of
sizes and prices for blankets, see: Fleece Blanket Sizes & Prices.
Step
4: How to Sew Fleece Blankets (The Secret Overlock Stitch)
The hem of a blanket will often tell you all about the
quality. A sign of poor quality would be a wavy or uneven hem. Using
low-quality fabric and the lack of detail will leave you dissatisfied with your
blanket purchase.
We use
two kinds of sewing machines when we make our fleece blankets. We use a single
needle sewing machine to sew in the American Blanket Company care content and
branded label. This is stitched 4” down on the left side of the long side of
the blanket. The second sewing machine is a hemming or stitching machine; a
5-thread, three-needle top and bottom cover-stitch machine, and this is used to
sew the blanket’s 1” hem. We’ve had our greatest hem success using this machine
for creating a durable hem that lasts and stands the test of time.
Lots of
fleece blankets use a satin binding to ensure overall product softness, even on
the hem. Our blankets, however, are already unbelievably soft and very durable,
so we prefer to use a self-fabric hem, made of the same material as the
blankets themselves.
Where the
two hems meet, we use something called an over lock stitch to help enforce the
four corners (the areas of a blanket likely to break down over time) from
fraying or unraveling. An over lock is a kind of sewing stitch that sews over
the edge of two pieces of the fleece blanket. The over lock uses a looper, fed
by multiple thread cones to create thread loops that pass from the needle to
the edge of the blanket so that the edges of the fleece are contained within
the seam.
Step
5: Vacuuming Fleece Blankets Removes Fibers and Reduces Shedding
Brushing,
shearing, cutting, sewing and hemming fleece blankets creates lots of little
loose blanket fibers around the shop. Our job—make sure none of them arrive on
your new blanket! Gently vacuuming the finished blanket removes any loose
fibers that have clung to the fabric in the process of making a fleece blanket.
We run each blanket through the vacuum twice to ensure that both sides of the
blanket are free from any loose fibers.
Vacuuming
the blanket has an additional positive effect in that the air and suction in
the vacuum machine fluffs the nap of the blanket up a bit, prior to folding and
gift boxing. This helps the blanket stay fluffed, even when it’s compressed in
its gift box.
Vacuuming
a blanket removes over 90% of the loose fibers and helps ensure that the
blanket won’t shed or pill. Still, we recommend that customers wash and dry
their blankets once before first use to be sure that any loose fibers are
cleared from the blanket.
Step
6: Inspecting Fleece Blankets for Quality and Perfection
Each
blanket we make has two blanket inspectors who check the blanket for any
potential quality issues. We inspect for blanket length and width (bed)
measurements, loose threads, holes in the fabric, dirt or stains and poor
stitching along the hems.
A large
percentage of our blankets are embroidered or monogrammed blankets. This means
we inspect the monogramming or embroidery to make sure the blanket says exactly
what the customer ordered, in exactly the color or tonal thread the
customer requested.
Step
7: Packaging and Shipping Fleece Blankets for Customers
The best
step in making better blankets is shipping them to customers around the world! We
carefully fold and package each blanket, and promptly ship them to our loyal
customers. Purchasing one of our blankets as a gift? We will wrap the blanket
in a beautiful white box, topped off with a silver ribbon and gift tag.
American Blanket Company’s mission is to provide our
customers with the finest quality blankets. We take extra steps and precautions
to make sure our blankets are the softest you’ve ever felt.
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