Friday, February 12, 2010

Baby gifts- Homemade

These homemade baby gifts are a fun way to surprise a new mom.
The tiny blanky is made small (between 12-15 inches)
to be portable so that the baby doesn't have to drag a full-sized
blanket around to be comforted on outings etc. Start by picking some coordinating fabrics that you like and
cut it to be bewtween 13"-16" inches depending on how
big you want it to turn out.

you can add a decorative edge to one of the sides sewing strips
of your coordinating print to the sides or just put your
coordinating print on the other side.

for the back of this blanky, I used part of a brown fleece
blanket that I bought premade for only $4.00.
Fleece by the yard can be a little pricey.

Next select some ribbon that matches the colors in the fabric.
They can be different widths.


Cut the ribbon to be about 3".
You will need about 7 ribbon pieces per blanket side

Using your iron or a flat iron, put a crease down
the middle of the ribbon to help it stay flat.

Lay the ribbon where you want it to be sewn (varying the
ribbon types) and pin (or tape) them to the FACE of the
blanket then add the back of the blanket so that the
two outside pieces are inside with the ribbons. Sew
together leaving a small space to pull it back to its right side.

After pulling the blanket right-side-out (the Ribbons will naturally
poke out as seen in the photo of the completed blanket), sew along
the edges again to secure the ribbons more firmly in place.



If you want to add a little toy animal that matches it's even better. My friend Teresa
got the idea for the giraffe from makeitandloveit (blog address on my sidebar),
but since I made mine a little differently, I thought I would show you how I did it.

Start by making a patern out of an 8.5" x 11" paper.
Cut out a front and a back for the giraffe
(again, I used the brown fleece blanket
for the back leaving the edging on the bottom
for the hoofs).


Cut a strip from the coordinating fabric to
add to the bottom of the legs.

Sew these pieces on BEFORE sewing
the rest of the giraffe together.

Now add you ribbon (using the same instructions as
above). You can see that I prefer to tape the
ribbon rather than pin it- it's faster and it stays nicely
in place until you have finished sewing it.

Add a pinch of the coordinating fabric for the tail.

Follow the same instructions as with the blanket sewing the
outer pieces inside with the ribbons leaving
a small opening to pull it right-side-out.


When you are finished you can make a "baby" giraffe to go with its mama and also embellish it any way you want (being careful about pieces that could present a choking hazard.)


You can monogram the blanky if you like
(this is the first one I made for my baby) .


Get creative....you can do so many variations,
My son David loves to help me design things.
Together we made a tiny dinosaur for his friend's birthday.

H a p p y C r e a t i n g !

Stay tuned....
Next up....how to make stylish baby bibs with
your favorite fabric and ......

a shower curtain!


P.s. this is my first ever attempt at making a tutorial...
if this was helpful to you please let me know so that
i can see if making more of them is worth the effort!

18 comments:

  1. Cute stuff Sara. I will definitely need stuff like this in a few years when I get some grandkids! I'm out of that mode so I will definitely need a tutorial to get me back in the swing of things.

    Thanks for sharing your time and talents with all of us.

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  2. Everything is so beautiful! Great Job! Hope I can get going now and make some gifts!

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  3. I love tutorials--such neat projects. You have great taste in fabric.

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  4. Wow, that almost looks easy enough that I could do it.

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  5. Too cute! If I ever got motivated enough to pull out my sewing machine - this is what'd I'd make :) tfs.

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  6. You have an amazing flair for fabric choice and design. You should market these!

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  7. I had no idea you sewed! :) I love the bibs! Well, everything is very cute! Looks like lots of work, but I love your step by step instructions to make it so much easier. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Super cute! Great idea including tags in your designs, great tactile feature. I occasionally work at a local baby boutique and we sell a ton of Taggies blankets for that reason.

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  9. You have such great taste Sara! I love to see your creations.

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  10. I especially liked the choice of music to go along with the tutorial!

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  11. I love the giraffes! I want one for me. :)

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  12. I love everything about it, maybe esp the giraffes:D:D
    Browns and pink / browns and light blue are such great color combinations, too. Hugs!

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  13. Great Post.....I found your site on stumbleupon and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

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  14. Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

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  15. After reading your blog, I thought your articles is great! I liked your articles and Photographs. Your blog is very useful to me. Here you are providing such a greatful information. Thanks for sharing.......

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  16. After reading your blog, I thought your articles is great! I liked your articles and Photographs. Your blog is very useful to me. Here you are providing such a greatful information. Thanks for sharing.......

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  17. "it's soo cute ! Good job Sara , I didn't know that about you - you have such talent to do such cute things :)"

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  18. I think this is the greatest idea! How did you just think to use regular objects to make a pattern? I think if this is not too time consuming for you I am dying to see the next installment of your home-made wonders!

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