I Found My Sewjo While Sewing for Baby

I am finally back to sewing.  It's such a nice feeling.  I started back with, what I thought, were easy-peasy projects.  Sewing for baby.  I decided to stick to the basics and started sewing shortly after I found out my friend was pregnant.  I sent her a list of what I was sewing, and in the case of the diaper bag, a picture of the pattern, but the fabric choices were all mine.  It was a bit of a challenge since the baby's sex will be a surprise.

Here's what I made:

 A little baby quilt and knit receiving blanket.  The quilt was very frustrating for me because I don't quilt. Learning curves really do give me a headache.  The smiley face receiving blanket was much easier. I used ribbed knit and my bias tape maker for the trim.  I couldn't find the right width steam a seam so I just used a large zig zag to apply the trim and then neatened it up with a straight stitch. 

Cheater quilt: I found sevreral of these panels in my stash.  (Thank you crazy sewing fabric stash for making all of this possible!).  I managed to complete 3.  These were very time consuming since I had to make yards of bias tape (I found a new use for ugly fabric) and then hand stitch the trim on the reverse side (I used the instructions from Bend the Rules Sewing.).  As you will see from this post, only 2 made the cut.  While I was sewing the trim on the third quilt, I noticed that the quilting threads were coming loose so I just tossed the fabric. It was quite old so...

Here's the second cheater quilt.  I also managed to find fabric identical to the back of the panel in my stash so I used that for the trim work.

 Burp pads.  Lots and lots of burp pads.  I have to tell you, making these things are addictive!

 Flannel receiving blankets. 

Washcloths.  I added holders so they can be hung in the bathroom.   

Instead of cards, they requested books.  Rather than purchase books, I pulled book panels from my fabric stash.

I made two books, but only signed one.

I found a tutorial online and made a modesty cover out of my favorite Amy Butler home dec fabric.

Blankets using cotton fabric and minky.  What a challenge!  Sewing with minky wasn't fun but it did get easier once I switched to a walking foot.  Of course, I really couldn't steam the heck out of them while ironing due to the raised pattern on the minky, so I had to rely on the dryer to do my ironing.  I found it to be quite annoying.

  Fleece blanket out of some cute fleece I found in the stash.
 

 Diaper bag.  I used Amy Butler's Nappy Bag pattern for this.  Although I've made this twice before, this time had me pulling out my hair.  I chose pleather for the bag since mommy is a lawyer and this is a bit more sophisticated.  I chose an acquatic theme for the fabric since (a) this is Florida and (b) daddy is a marine biologist.

 I even had terry in my fabric stash.  I went with red for the changing pad since we don't know the sex of the baby. 

 Here's the bag with the changing pad in it's holder.

 
 I used the left over fleece to make some eco-friendly wipes.

 

 Of course, after all the sewing, I realized that I hadn't made any toys, so I made these two.
 

  Here's everything packed up and ready to go.  

There it all is!  Yeah, I went a little crazy but I had fun.  The baby shower was quite lovely.  It was a Beatrix Potter themed tea party.  Such fun.  Even the games were painless.

I do love sewing for babies and the good news is that another of the attorneys that I worked with is pregnant as well.  As soon as I wrap up Christmas sewing, I'm moving on to her gift.  This time I get to sew knowing that I'm sewing for a little girl, Zoe.

Until next time.