DIY baby meal gift set

Remember the tutorial for a lined flat zipper pouch I posted here a couple of days ago? As I said back then, I made that specific pouch to be part of a set - in this case, a gift set for a baby boy. 

The pouch is to be used as storage for the cutlery, and it's paired with a matching bib. 

DIY large towel backed baby bib - with free pattern

I've officially started making Christmas gifts! And the first one is for a baby cousin, who will be about 4 months old around Christmas, so bibs were a natural choice.

 

I've made lots of bibs in the past, using my baby bib pattern but those bibs were mostly for girls, all round and dainty (check here for the version of the bib with a pocket). This time, as I was making bibs for a boy soon starting his first solid foods, I wanted the bibs to be larger. So what did I do? I drafted a new pattern, of course!

DIY Baby Blanket

Hello, and welcome to another week! Today I'm going to show you how to make a cute baby blanket. 

I made this last weekend for a new baby boy cousin and even with having to sew bias tape all around, I still managed to finish it very quickly.

DIY Bunny Softies - with pattern

Hello, and welcome. Today I'm sharing two sweet bunny softies. I made them a couple of months ago as a gift for my cousin's baby girl and now I have finally finished drafting the pattern and putting together a tutorial.

They are really very easy to make. All you need is some cute fabric and a little bit of time, and you can create a lovely homemade gift. 

Cross Stitch Baby Gift Set

Today I intended to share another installment of the You-Can-Do-It-Yourself series, but I had a very busy day yesterday and I just didn't have time to set it up. So instead I'm going to show you a cross stitched baby gift set I finished last weekend.

It's very similar to the one I made last year, but this time for a girl instead of a boy...

Both the bib and the little blanket were store bought, which may be a bit more expensive but always saves a lot of time. I just added the cross-stitch motives.

Inspiration for the cross stitch came from this Pinterest pin, though as usual I changed the pattern a lot before deciding on the final version.

 

I love cross stitching and I haven't done a lot of it lately, so making this was a real pleasure. In addition, it was a quick project and makes a lovely baby gift for the mother to be.

Happy Thursday, 

cross stitch custom baby gift

When it comes to gifts, I always think homemade is the best route to follow. So I'm back here today to show you a custom baby gift I finished a couple of weekends ago for a sweet baby boy due any day now. 

Both the bib and the little blanket were store bought, which saved me a ton of time, so I just needed to add the cross-stitch. 

Inspiration for the vehicles came from this Pinterest pin, though I changed colors to create a uniform color scheme. 

 

The letters were designed by me, but you can find lots of inspiration for cross-stitch alphabets here. 

All in all, it was a quick project, it makes a lovely baby gift for a mother to be and I'm very happy with the result. 

Happy Tuesday, 

DIY baby placemat - with tutorial

So, yesterday I shared a tutorial on how to make a travel meal set for babies and toddlers. I made it as a Christmas gift for my cousin's baby girl, who's turning one next January. The full set includes a pouch for the cutlery, a placemat and a baby bib. Today I will be sharing a quick tutorial on how to easily make a custom placemat. 

The placemat I made is sized 29 x 24 cm, because I sized it for a baby, and besides I wanted it to fit in the pocket of the travel meal set pouch:

But if you follow the tutorial and just adjust the measurements you can make placemats any size. 

DIY baby travel meal set - with tutorial

I'm trying to get my Christmas sewing done in advance this year, and this weekend I finished the travel meal set for my cousin's baby girl. 

The set includes a little pouch with pockets for the baby cutlery, a place mat and a matching bib:

Today I'll show you how to make the pouch and the placemat, and over the next few days I will post tutorials for the bib and the placemat. 

The pouch is actually easier to make than it is to explain the process here. Whenever possible I added images, which should be self-explanatory, but if you want to make one and still have questions, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment and I will try to help you to the best of my abilities. 

To make the pouch you will need:

• the cutlery you will be using. I bought a set to add to the gift, but if you already have it, you'll just need it for measurements
• fabric for the pouch. Exact measurements will depend on the size of your cutlery, so read on to get a better idea
• batting
• two pieces of matching ribbon
• material for embellishment (optional). I used fabric yo-yos and fabric covered buttons

Step 1: Take measurements to make sure your cutlery fits in. I cut a piece of fabric 60 x 42 cm, folded it in half (so what you see below is 30 x 42 cm, with the fold at the bottom)...

...and then folded over again about 8 cm over to measure the pocket for the cutlery and the placemat.

Step 2: cut the batting. You will need a piece half the size of your fabric. Since my original fabric was 60 x 42 cm, my batting was sized 30 x 42 cm (the size of the folded fabric)

Step 3: Iron your fabric to mark the fold for the pockets, and also the middle of the fabric, where your pouch will fold over. This is not essential but will help you when sewing.

Step 4: Temporarily unfold the "pocket" and place batting in between the two layers of fabric, and then fold the pocket over in place again. 

Step 5: Pin the fabric + batting in the middle (the marking you made when ironing) and then find the middle of your left side pocket and pin it too (just remember that the middle of the left side pocket is not necessarily the middle of the fabric, since you need to take the seam allowance into account - like the image below, your "middle" will be somewhat deviated towards the right side of the fabric). 

Also, make sure you pin just the top fabric and the batting. The other layer of fabric (which will be the outside of the pouch) should not be pinned.

Note that I only had two pieces of cutlery and one placemat, so I only needed two pockets on one side and a larger one on the other. It you have additional pieces of cutlery, besides adjusting the measurements, you may also want to sew additional pockets.

Step 6: Sew the pockets. This means that you will unfold the unpinned layer of fabric and sew where you pinned, from the bottom to to the top of the pocket fold (joining everything together but the exterior fabric). Remove the pins after sewing.

Step 7: Put the pieces of ribbon in place. Center them on each side of the pouch, as shown below.

Step 8: Place the part of the fabric you unfolded over the pocket side of the pouch, right sides together (basically you will be folding the fabric in the opposite direction as it was before), with the ribbon tucked in between. Pin all around. 

Step 9: sew all around. You'll be sewing on three sides (because the bottom is folded) and you need to leave a small opening on one of the sides to turn inside out. After turning inside out, it should look like this:

Step 10: close the opening and top stitch all around (all four sides, this time). Embellish as you wish (optional). I added three yo-yos and fabric covered buttons. 

And you're finished. Put the cutlery in place in the small pockets and add a placemat or a napkin to the larger pocket.

I made a matching placemat to complete the set. Click here for that tutorial.

Happy Monday,

5 amazingly easy projects to sew for babies

The ABC Crafts Series: B is for...baby

Yes, this is week three of the ABC Crafts series and we are still covering letter B. Last week I shared a roundup of wonderful beading projects, but this week I'm repeating the letter to show you some pretty easy baby ideas too.

In case you missed the previous posts, the ABC Crafts series will be covering one (or more) crafts for each letter of the alphabet during 2016. Each roundup features 5 links, grouped around the major theme. All links posted will be DIY tutorials with clear instructions and/or free patterns, so that everyone can easily replicate them.

I've now created a specific page for the series, which will include links to the crafts already covered, and a list of upcoming topics. You can find the page here. If you have suggestions for any of the topics, feel free to leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I will try to include your ideas as much as possible (with proper credit)!

And now, without further delay, let's check the 5 easy baby projects I found for you today! I picked 5 things that are not only useful and quick to make, but also so easy that even beginners can tackle them. They are perfect for gifts to new babies or expectant mothers, baby showers and, of course, to make for your own babies.

Easy & Inexpensive DIY Baby Blanket

I have been a lazy crafter these past few weeks but yesterday I finally managed to finish a project! Yay!

 

This baby blanket is probably one of the easiest projects I've ever tackled and, in retrospect, I don't even know why it took me so long to get it done.

Custom baby gift & gift package

When I need to find a gift for a new baby and I have no idea of what the parents want or need, I often resort to making a custom baby bib. Because you can't have too many bibs and a personalized one is always cute.

The easiest way to do this is, of course, to buy one of those pre-made bibs with a bit of aida fabric on the front, thus ready to embroider.

This one is from DMC and I cross stitched the name of the baby to be in bold, girly colors (originally I took additional pictures, but then somehow managed to erase them before actually writing this post). 

The cross stitch chart is also from DMC and I found it on Pinterest. You can download it here. 

To complement the baby bib I decided to make a cute gift package too. I used my cereal box to gift package tutorial to create a one of a kind gift package, ideal for a baby girl.  

I started with a box of baby cereal and covered it in pink self adhesive paper.

Then I glued some glittery hearts and added a matching ribbon. 

Perfect! One pretty custom made inexpensive baby gift that any expectant mother will love!

Enjoy and have a great week!