What could it be?
A cat-owner’s sofa before cleaning off the dirty kitty paw prints?
No! It’s a homemade Snuglet!
You’ve seen commercials for the Snuggie. They’re EVERYWHERE, both the commercials and the product itself (Wal*Mart anyone?)
The purple one in this picture, however, looks much more plush than the actual cheapo Snuggie.
They do have a “plush” Snuggie for twice the price but I’ve read such bad reviews about the quality I decided to stay away.
Instead, I opted for the Slanket. Have you heard of it?
It is actually quite plush and larger than the Snuggie. I ordered this very one in “Alaskan Blue” and it’s lovely. A bit stinky when you first get it due to the plastic bag it comes in, but perfectly fine after the first wash.
Speaking of washing, be sure to use the delicate cycle for fleece, at least in the dryer. It dries quite quickly.
I bought the Slanket to see how it’s made but it costs $33 minimum with free shipping at Amazon.com and most colors are priced much higher at $45+ with no free shipping available. Crazy!
So I jumped online and immediately found these great instructions on how to make a Snuglet, so-named to avoid pesky copyright/trademark issues related to the Snuggie and Slanket brand names.
I made the paw-print one shown at the top of the page ostensibly for my sister Karen, but then she said she didn’t want a Christmas gift from me (due to something I already sent her, blahblahblah, not important) so, aw bummer, I GUESS I’LL HAVE TO KEEP IT FOR MYSELF.
One must make sacrifices for family.
You know, I didn’t think I would actually like the Snuglet. A blanket with arms? Please! How lazy would one have to be to need one of these? But then I tried my paw-print Snuglet on the couch one night…
OMG! You can use the remote while your hand is toasty warm, concealed up inside the sleeve with just the end of the remote sticking out! You can hold a book without your hands getting cold! YOU CAN SNACK WITHOUT THE BLANKET FALLING OFF AND EXPOSING YOUR DELICATE SHOULDER TO THE COLD NIGHT AIR.
The hardest part of making the Snuglet is attaching the sleeves but a little gather here and there to get things to fit is no big deal, especially on a big blanket-like thing no one is going to take a close look at.
So now I can’t decide, do I take the adorable paw-print or the Alaskan blue to the office to use at my desk, where I normally freeze my ass off during the winter because it is apparently only possible to engineer comfortable heating in one or two rooms of a building, while the remaining rooms remain either frozen-tundra cold or make-your-armpits-smell hot?
So hard to decide.
P.S. For those who complain you can’t walk around in one of these things, I say – Duh - do you normally walk around encased in a blanket? No, no you do not. Use the Snuggie / Slanket / Snuglet as you would a blanket, like when you’re curled up watching TV or reading. It is simply more convenient to have a blanket with arms for certain activities rather than a regular blanket. If you want to walk around and be warm, put on a damn robe.
Hat tip to Welmoed Sisson for the easy instructions.
