Peer Reviewer

My instructions are on How to Make a Fleece Tie Blanket. I think that the project itself was not a super hard one to complete. Although I have never made a fleece tie blanket before so this was a cool experience for me to finally know how to make one. I feel like I know the exact steps by heart because I had to create my own. I did have some difficulties though fir this portfolio. I think the hardest thing was trying to get to the word limit without sounding super wordy in the instructions. Also, trying to make up steps on my own was difficult since I never made one before. I had to ask a couple different friends of mine on what the correct way to make the blanket was because some people a certain step. I also used Google to see what steps went into the certain order but I used my own way of describing the instructions.

The reading response articles were very helpful for me because that’s how I organized my instructions to look like. I think that the hints it gave was very thought out and well written. I do agree with the article “How to Write Guides for Busy, Grouchy People” and what it explained on how to write guides. The very first thing it said was to know your audience, which is very important because of how you would narrate your instructions. The way you narrate your instructions is very important because you don’t want to use professional term if your audience ends up being teens or if your instructions are not used in your professional field. It also works the other way around. You don’t want to use basic terms for instructions going out in the professional field.

If someone who has never made a tie blanket before reads my instructions I do believe that they will be able to follow them. My instructions are written toward anyone that is crafty and has an interest in making a fleece tie blanket. Considering this was my very first fleece tie blanket that I made my instructions shows what you need to do and how you need to do it in a simple way. I also think that anyone that has made them before and reads my instructions will know how to make the fleece tie blanket and understand how to make on better.

Sincerely,

How to Make a Fleece Tie Blanket

Do you ever want to be creative during the fall and winter? Do you want a creative Christmas gift idea? Do you ever get cold and want a warm blanket but also want to be crafty? Then the tie blanket is the way to go. It is easy to make and a great gift that comes from the heart and your time. The fleece tie blanket will keep you nice and warm during the colder nights of fall and winter. The items you need before you start are listed below and all are cheap. There is no need to spend a lot of money because you are already putting your time and effort into making the blanket. There are only eight simple steps that you need to follow to get the perfect fleece tie blanket.

Items Necessary to Begin

· Scissors (preferably fabric scissors)

· 2 pieces of fleece precut to your specific size

· Ruler or some sort of measuring device

· Straight edge to cut straight lines

· Open floor space or large table to cut and tie blanket

Step 1:

Select 2 pieces of fleece from Joann’s or another fabric store and have them cut it to the size of your choice.

Hint: When choosing the fleece many people do one patterned piece and one solid color piece for the bottom to match the pattered piece.

Step 2:

Find an open space and gather your materials for you to start your warm fleece tie blanket.

Step 3:

Place the two pieces of fleece wrong sides together. Make sure the softer sides are on the outside.

Hint: If you selected a pattered piece of fabric make sure that the pattern is on top.

Step 4:

Check all four sides of the fleece and if there is a side where both pieces of fleece are not lined up evenly you will need to make a line on the fleece that you can trim to make both pieces of fabric even.

Step 5:

Use the scissors and utilize a straight edge to trim off the ends to make both pieces of fleece even. If your pieces of fleece are even then you can skip this step and move on to step 6. Warning: Scissors are sharp so be careful when cutting fabric.

Step 6:

Use the scissors to cut out a three to four-inch square from one corner then continue to do the same thing for the other three corners

Hint: This will prevent bunching of the material in the corners and help make tying easier.

Step 7:

Use the scissors to cut out slits through both pieces of fleece about three inches deep and one inch wide all the way around the fabric.

Hint: Make sure you cut deep enough so that you can tie the pieces together and double knot them.

Step 8:

Tie the matching top and bottom slits around the entire perimeter of the fabric together into double knots.

Hint: The double knots will help the fleece stay together better after washing the blanket.

Reading Response #4

I read the article “How to Write Guides for Busy, Grouchy People” for portfolio 3. This article helped me write my instructions because it gave me helpful tips on what to write and how to write it. I was stuck on writing the introduction and with this article it claimed to not put anything important in the introduction and that it is something short because most people won’t read it and will skip to the numbered instructions. The article also said to state the purpose of the instructions into the introduction and I think I did that part pretty well. I liked how in depth this article went especially for how old it looks to be. The next thing the article said was to make each step into commands what I needed to do was in each step use a narrative that tells my audience what they should do. I do believe that this was one of the easiest things to do for this article because I like telling people what to do so I did this easily. This was a good tip because having the narrative toward the audience is something you have to have in order for the instructions to work well. The article also said to use numbered steps and bullet points. There is no need for a paragraph form for steps on how to do something because people will not want to read that and it will get even more difficult to follow. There needs to be steps clearly separated and possibly pictures to show the audience how it should look so that way they know that they are doing it correctly. Visuals are very important in how to guides because I would want to know that I’m doing something right. You must have everything organized and set up that way your audience can see what the instructions are telling them. This article for me was very helpful in writing my whole instructions because it helped me outline and make sure I had the correct narrative and I used the step example it showed for my own instructions but I made them into my own.