gifting

As promised, I'm back to share with you some of the shower gifts I made this last week.  I was thrilled to be able to make some baby girl things!  And excited for three more babies on the way in the family to share some love with.


I had been anxious to start working on some patterns out of my Handmade Beginnings book by Anna Maria Horner, which I received for Christmas this year, and thought this to be the perfect opportunity to break it out!

Her prints and patterns are just too cute!  I made the Baby in the Hood coat and her Quick-Change Pants.  Both turned out so nicely and were actually surprisingly easy to make, so I think I will definitely be making more of these in the upcoming months.  Actually, I'm pretty much already obsessed with the Baby in the Hood Coat (believe me, you'll see in upcoming posts). Here is the set I made for baby Bethany (apologies for the low-quality photographs):

I was originally going to stop there.  Really.  I told myself, this is probably good enough.  But then I saw this diaper bag tutorial on A Mingled Yarn and had to make it.  

At first I completely decided against the diaper bag, because I didn't want to put the time into refiguring out the pattern I put together for the last one I made, but since it was all laid out for me, I went for it.  It took me about 3 hours from start to finish, and I am so happy I made it!  I think I'll take a few tips from it to add to my pattern, because I like the shape and piping details on mine a little better, but this one is still a great tutorial to use!  Here are some close-ups of my favorite details:

Then...I had to whip up some burp cloths and bibs.  I have seen these around in the sewing blog world, but haven't ever attempted to make any.  I remember having such ugly burp rags for Shea though, so I loved the idea of making something very mundane and basic into coordinated cuteness.  I made the bibs by just tracing around one I had and changing the shape to what I liked.  I also added a pocket, and used an eye and hook closure instead of velcro or a snap.  This was originally just because its all I had, but I actually like the clean look of it a lot.

The burp cloths were even easier. I bought a two pack of cream colored towels at Walmart for $3 and made four burp cloths and the bibs with just one towel.  There is a great tutorial over on one of my favorite blogs, Prudent Baby, if you're interested in whipping some of these up!

Hope you got some ideas for yourself for quick shower gifts - or even to shower your own baby with!  Here is a snapshot of another piece I'll be sharing soon (can you guess what it is?)