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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Oh baby! Fun & simple gift


When I had my daughter I was all about wanting some girly things (obviously - you've seen her room). But at the same time I knew it didn't mean going out and buying ALL new baby things. One thing that I reused was the burp cloths for the boys - they were this great soft cotton cloth diaper (mostly Gerber brand) - I took them all (about 18) soaked them in bleach for a few days to get them nice and white, and then added fun fabrics to them all (pinks/flowers/etc - girly). 

Well once I started sewing more I wanted to make some as gifts for friends. Imagine my surprise the first time I went to the store to buy some new cloth diapers (since I wasn't going to use recycled from my own kids :p ) and the quality felt horrible. They were scratchy & thin. YUCK. So I started looking for better options. I've found 2 good methods I think. 

*The first is to use a bath towel/toweling fabric as the plain side and then get cute/pretty flannel for the other side. They are both soft and absorbent.
*The other option I've tried with good luck is to buy some pre-quilted fabric - there is the solid white that just has pre-quilted diamonds that I use for the back side, and then I have found some really cute pre-quilted/patchwork quilt in baby fabrics (mixture of prints/solids, flannel, chamois) - this really gives a boutique look.

I do plan on doing a full on tutorial soon - but for now will just share a few quick pictures of a recent baby boy gift set. I loved this car print flannel and then found that it was a pretty simple design to just add a coordinating knit fabric applique car to a onesie. I think this set turned out adorable!


What I did was cut out 10x20 rectangles (2 on the flannel print, 2 on a towel)
then sew the edges using about a 1/2 in. seam allowance w/ the right sides facing each other - but be sure to leave about a 3 in opening (or however big you need to pull the whole thing through). 
Trim the edges and corners and pull right side out. Tuck in the opening and top-stitch the entire rectangle with a 1/4 in allowance - sometimes I will double top-stitch w/ an additional 1/2" allowance -but this last time ran out of time.

Next time I'll take pictures along the way. I really ought to just make up a stash since they are cute and sweet little gifts. :) 

 If you can sew a straight (or semi - straight line) then you can make a burp cloth for a gift or bulk up your own stash because... well, spit happens with babies and you can never have too many. ;)


We're going to the zoo!

We are taking the kids to the zoo today. YAY! I knew I wanted something fun for the kids to wear, so I asked the boys what animal shirt would they like to wear. 

Dominic immediately replied "A monkey with no hair" and do you know what!? I already had one of those made for him about 2 years ago - and because I had made it on a shirt too big it still fits!


Then Vincent said he wanted a lion. So I found a cute design for him. He wants to find the lions & say "ROAR. Because that is saying hi to them." So funny!




And then for Gabby... she's a baby so I picked. ;)  I had really wanted to make a skirt for her but I just couldn't find a tutorial like I wanted and so I am going to just wait and make one when I have more time - we'll go to the zoo again. So instead she's wearing a Matilda Jane skirt that we already had - the style name for it is Gabbi.





And now its time for me to stop blogging & finish getting ready for the zoo! Have a wonderful day!