Thursday, July 19, 2012

Homemade Baby Gifts

I think I am very lucky to be surrounded by creative people, one of those people is my mother in law, who is a very talented seamstress. Her specialty is bedding and drapery...specifically nurseries. I take full advantage of this and have had her make me blanket sets for my cousins' and friends' babies.


She will usually make two fitted crib sheets, four blankets and a pillow.

 I'll then wrap it up with a toy or set of onesies in a nice basket/box and we are good to go!

I wanted to do a little more for my sister's nursery so I had her pick out the materials she wanted (we found an amazing fabric store in Minneapolis - Crafty Planet that had gorgeous material to select from) and then my mother in law made the crib skirt, bumper pads, fitted sheets, cover for the change pad, curtains & topper, as well as a quilt, blankets, and pillows. I think they turned out amazing.



But as talented as my mother-in-law is, I also wanted to add something I made as well this time so my friend and I decided to make a felt mobile for my sister's nursery. After some trial and error with creating an appropriate sized pattern that looked the way we wanted, we settled on four owls, in varying blue and grey felts with leaves falling above them. I also wanted to incorporate the birch that was in her nursery so I had my mother send me a white birch branch.

We straight stitched the felt and stuffed the bodies of the owls. I used fishing line to hang the leaves and owls from the birch branch dowels (the fishing line was too difficult to thread through my needle but it was stiff enough to go through the felt with out it). I tied knots under each leaf so that they stayed at the heights I wanted. And to secure the branches in place I first wrapped the cross in floral wiring then covered it in twine for a more natural look.

It was a pretty inexpensive project and probably took me less then 8 hours to make.

Now I'm trying to think of gifts that would be appropriate for a second time mother. I have a bib sewing kit that I purchased from Purl Bee awhile ago that I want to attempt. Anyone have suggestions?