Scouts Campfire Blanket

I am a Scout Leader for Beavers. Now Beavers don't normally go camping, but I love camping, so the Beavers are going camping. This past mid-September I brought my group camping, outside, in tents! Now you may say, what's the big deal? You go camping all the time. Well, Beavers starts at the tender age of 5 to 7! Many of the Beavers never slept in a tent, let alone away from their parents, let alone SLEPT OUTSIDE!

Well, my Beavers were AMAZING! Not one was afraid, not one had an accident, and we were all snug as a bug in a rug. And it was COLD! Now I wanted to have my campfire blanket ready, to show off, but my timing was off. They are now ready for our winter camping trips.

Last year we bought some nice wool and fleece to sew our Scouts campfire blankets. I started the project, but like many other things in life, I ran out of time. So I started the project again before my Beaver camping weekend a few weeks ago. I was rushed and I did not like the results.We decided to scrap the idea of having fleece sewn on the wool. It will be too bulky with the fleece.

Now you just cut up the middle to form a poncho. We serge the edges, then we sew on the badges.

 The campfire blanket is a record of your adventures in Scouting. When you swim up from Beavers to Cubs you remove your badges and sew them on to your blanket. Any awards, Beaver tails, crest etc... you sew on.
It is also a means to keep you warm by the campfire and on those cold nights where you sleeping bag just isn't warm enough.

 I had to sew everything all at once, which I don't recommend! It took forever. I had to baste all the badges on as the blanket is heavy and cumbersome to manoeuvre. The badges kept falling off.
Plus you have to change your thread for each different colored badge.

But going forward it will be a quick process to sew them on. The only hard part is deciding where to put sew it on!
Now on to Tyler's blanket! He has a LOT of badges, Beaver tails, and activity crests. I may leave it to next weekend!