QUILTS, BLANKETS AND AFGHANS Community volunteers can help craft blankets, sew quilts or knit/crochet afghans. This project is a wonderful way to provide warmth and comfort for our patients worldwide. All quilts, blankets and afghans need to be appropriately sized for a child: 45" x 45" or 54" x 54". Quilts should be made from lightweight cotton and must include light batting. Blankets can be made from lightweight fleece. Light to medium weight cotton or acrylic yarn is preferred for afghans. NO-SEW DOUBLE FLEECE BLANKET Materials 1-2/3 yds. of print micro-weight fleece 1-2/3 yds. of a solid micro-weight fleece Tape measure Safety pins Sharp shears or scissors Instructions 1. Cut your fabric so that it measures 54" square. Remove the selvages (machined edge.) 2. Place the fabric squares together, matching corners, with the right side of fabric facing out. You can safety pin the pieces together to help keep fabric from shifting. 3. To create your no-sew blanket, you will cut a fringe and tie the pieces together. 4. Place fabric on a solid surface (floor/table). 5. Cut a 4" square from each corner. 6. Cut fringe 1" wide and 4" deep on all sides. 7. Use an overhand knot to tie the front and back fringe together. Start at one corner and tie every other fringe. Be careful not to stretch the fabric. 8. Flip the blanket and finish tying all remaining fringe. Gently pull the knots to create a smooth finish. This creates a tidy, no front or back look to your blanket. QUILTS, BLANKETS AND AFGHANS 1 of 4
NO-SEW LIGHT WEIGHT FLEECE BLANKET Materials 1-1/2 yards of bright colored or printed micro-fleece Tape measure Sharp shears or scissors Seam ripper Instructions 1. Cut your fabric so that it measures 54" square. Remove the selvages (machined edge) and even up all uneven sides. 2. To create a light-weight single layer no-sew blanket, you will cut a fringe and loop the fringe through a small slit to create a finished edge. 3. Place fabric on a solid surface (floor/table.) 4. Cut a 4" square from each corner. 5. Cut fringe 1" wide x 4" deep on all sides. 6. Use a seam ripper to make a small slit at the top of each piece of fringe. 7. Feed the end of the fringe from the back side through the slit you made and pull through gently to create a tidy, finished fringed edge. QUILTS, BLANKETS AND AFGHANS 2 of 4
MACHINE QUILTED BLANKET Materials 1 1/4 yards printed decorative quilt fabric 1 yard solid color quilt fabric Quilt batting 1 1/4 yards woven flannel Large safety pins or needle and thick thread 1 masking tape 1 yard solid cotton fabric Sewing pins Sewing machine Instructions 1. Cut a square from the decorative fabric, a little bigger than you intend for the finished quilt. You can use the width of the fabric and make a 44" x 44" square. Cut squares of flannel and batting make sure they are just a few inches bigger than the decorative fabric. 2. Place the square of decorative fabric (the "quilt top") and center over the layer of light-weight quilt batting. Take the fabric and batting and put them on top of the piece of woven flannel. 3. Use the large safety pins to baste or hold the layers in place. Or you can baste the quilt by sewing long loose running stitches by hand. 4. Place a piece of masking tape diagonally (corner to corner) across the top of the quilt. Line up the tape with the edge of the sewing machine presser foot, and use the tape as a guide to stitch across the quilt. Use a larger machine stitch to look more like hand-quilting. Tip: To keep stitching secure, start sewing just off the top fabric (in the batting), and end just off the top fabric on the other end. 5. Remove the tape, then line it up against line just stitched, and stitch another line in the same way; repeat, moving from the center out to the corners in both directions. 6. When you have finished machine-quilting the entire blanket, trim off extra batting and flannel around edges of top fabric. 7. Cut 3 and ¾ strips of the solid fabric for the binding. Sew together end-to-end to make one long strip that is at least 5 yards long. Press the strip in half lengthwise. 8. Pin raw edges of strip to the raw edges of the quilt, all the way around on the back of the quilt (flannel side). Stitch the binding using a ½ seam allowance, mitering the corners. 9. Flip the binding over the raw edge of the quilt, and sew the folded edge to the front of the quilt with a decorative stitch. Adapted from Simple Baby Quilt instructions on marthastewart.com. QUILTS, BLANKETS AND AFGHANS 3 of 4
KNITTED CHILD-SIZED AFGHAN AND CROCHETED CHILD-SIZE AFGHAN Afghans need to be appropriately sized for a child: 45" x 45" or 54" x 54" using light to medium weight cotton or acrylic yarn. For free afghan patterns and directions, please reference the following sources who have kindly allowed us to link to their pattern directories: The Daily Knitter (www.dailyknitter.com/) Knitting Pattern Central (www.knittingpatterncentral.com/) QUILTS, BLANKETS AND AFGHANS 4 of 4
GENERAL SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS When you are ready to ship these items, please complete and submit the Service Project Inventory Sheet to accurately record your efforts. We recommend that you collect donations or work with a local business to cover the cost of packaging and shipping the supplies to Operation Smile. Operation Smile Attn: WAREHOUSE/Service Project 3641 Faculty Boulevard Virginia Beach, VA USA Complete and submit multiple forms if you are shipping several boxes of items. Include completed inventory sheets in each box. Please place the inventory form on TOP of contents in the box. Shipments of multiple boxes should be numbered: 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc. If you would like to receive an acknowledgement for community volunteer efforts and the donation of supplies, please clearly fill out the inventory form with your name, club or group information. For your records, handmade items have the following values: Smile Bags $2.00 USD Smile Dolls $5.00 USD Hospital Gowns $5.00 USD No-No Arm Bands $2.00 USD Quilts, Blankets and Afghans $5.00 $10.00 USD depending on materials Smile Bags must be empty when shipped. Additionally, completed arm bands must be shipped without inserts. It is important when organizing your collection that no items contain religious symbols or markings that may offend our patients cultural beliefs. We do not accept toys related to war or violence, such as guns, military action figures, etc. Please keep copies of your inventory form(s) for your records. Need more information? Email drelations@operationsmile.org or call 888-677-6453, Monday Saturday 8:30 a.m. 11:00 p.m. EST, Sunday 8:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m. EST for assistance. GENERAL SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS 1 of 2
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER SUPPLY DONATION INVENTORY FORM Please complete the following information: Contact Person & Title Business, Group or Club Name Address City, State, Zip Home Phone Cell/Alternate Phone Email An email will be sent to confirm receipt of your donation to the e mail address above. Item Quantity Item Quantity Total Donation Count: Total Estimated Dollar Value: Please use multiple inventory forms, if necessary. Thank you to our Community Volunteers who are making a difference! You are helping to change a child s life by sharing your time, talent and resources. GENERAL SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS 2 of 2