Make Holiday Violin Blankets for your Violin Case

Violin Christmas Blanket Project
It had been on my mind to make violin case blankets as a craft project for my violin studio students.
Finally this year I put it all together. We had fun making Christmas stocking blankets to use in our cases during the holiday season.
Here is what the prototype I made for my case looked like.
When I saw how cute it turned out, I couldn’t wait to get started.

Collect Supplies
First I used a coupon and went to the local fabric store to get supplies. Ahead of time I had measured my full size violin at 24 inches long. I figured that the average violin case was not more than ¼ yard wide.

I curved the tape measure over the bridge when measuring the width.

For my 23 students I ended up getting about 6 yards of the softest, fuzziest, velvety red fabric I could find. I also calculated out for three inch wide strips of white fluffy fake fur. I bought about 2 ½ yards of this type of fabric. For final touches I purchased one yard of fake black leather for students to cut 1 inch wide strips if they wanted to make a belt. One roll of gold duct tape to be used to make the belt clasp. The last item I purchased was some fabric glue.
In short:
Red Fuzzy Fabric 24 inches by ¼ yard per blanket
White Fake Fur 3 inch strips per blanket
Fake Black Leather 1 inch strip per blanket
Gold Duct Tape for buckle
Fabric Glue
Also have on hand: Scissors, pencil, paper to sketch ideas and paper to cover gluing surface.

Assembly

Since I was going to have students assemble and glue their blankets during class time, I cut out the red and white fabrics ahead of time.

We are working on our blankets.

Measuring, Cutting and Gluing our Blank

Originally I was held up on the idea that I needed a template for each violin size since I have many students with smaller violins than the full size I measured for. Also confusing was the fact that my students had all different styles of cases (shaped, oblong, half-moon). It turned out that students could use their case or their own violins to get the correct shape and size of their blanket. Moms of the younger students also helped. Here we are working on our blankets.

Once sizes were cut, students laid out how they wanted their violin blanket to look. Then they glued all parts together. I found that dabbing the glue in dots was better than running a strip of glue along the top.

Using dots of glue worked better than strips of glue.

The dots dried stiff, but allowed the blanket to move and shape over the violin. Of course the parts of the blanket could be sewn together, but I wanted this to be a project the students could do quickly. I did not know how many of them could use a sewing machine.
One thing that did happen was lots of fuzzies came off while the blankets were being cut. In the future, I plan to get a fleece fabric that is red and soft, but will not cause fuzz. I did figure out with another mom in my studio that we could cauterize the edge with a candle flame, lighter or bunsen burner. The cauterizing task would not be for the youngest blanket makers to take on. Any fuzz stuck to the inside of the case I removed with the sticky side of some masking tape.

Outcome
Here is a picture of the final products.

Here are some of the final products.

In the end I was so impressed with everyone’s blanket. It was amazing to see how each one turned out a bit different.
I plan to keep in mind doing this project for other occasions like summer camp, concerts, or other holidays.
If you have viola students, you would need to calculate for slightly more fabric.
I am so glad I did this project!