Sewing for a New Baby

I wrote this post a few weeks ago but didn’t have enough photos then to post it. The baby arrived January 4. All is well!

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My first grandbaby is due in a few weeks. My daughter asked if I would use Little Apples fabrics by Aneela Hoey for Moda to make a few things for the baby’s room. So in my spare time that’s what I’ve been working on lately.

My daughter sent me her copy of Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones and I used those patterns for a crib skirt and a bumper pad. Everything went together perfectly.

The crib skirt

Here the crib skirt is pinned up on my design wall. Since we know it’s a boy, I didn’t want a lot of gathers or ruffles and this sleek skirt design was perfect.

The red plaid from Moda is printed on the bias, which is great. You get a bias effect but everything is on the straight of grain.

Detail of crib skirt

Above you can see that there is an opening, and behind the opening is fabric. It’s a little like a fake pleat but it was simple and it hangs nicely.

The bumper pad has different fabrics for its exterior and interior, an idea I like a lot. I altered the pattern to have only one small pocket. It’s inside the crib now but the actual pads haven’t been put inside it yet.

I wanted to make something to wrap the baby in, but a quilt seemed too bulky for a newborn. I opted to make a couple of receiving blankets, which was an experiment. They’re cute and can always be displayed elsewhere in the room if they don’t work well as blankets.

Receiving blanket #1

I knew my daughter would appreciate a clean, modern aesthetic, so I kept the piecing simple and added white. The one above is 4.5″ squares with 1.75″ sashing in white. (Those are the cut dimensions; the squares finish at 4″ and the sashing at 1.25″.) Once the piecing was complete, I laid the top RST with a pre-washed piece of white all-cotton flannel. I used just a few pins to hold them together. The gray you see around the outside above is the design wall.

With my walking foot (also called an even-feed foot) I sewed around the edges with a 3/8″ seam, leaving an opening for turning of about 6″. I clipped the corners to reduce bulk and turned it right sides out.

After pressing nice and flat, I stitched the opening shut by sewing right next to the edge with matching thread. Then I topstitched all the way around about 3/8″ from the edge.

I only quilted around the center aqua-colored block, just to keep the layers from shifting around.

I like the weight of the pieced top with just a flannel backing and no batting. Because my iron spit up on the blanket, I had to wash it. If I make these again, I will prewash both the fabrics and the flannel. I think that will work a little better.

Receiving blanket #2

The second receiving blanket is strips in various widths, really just a down-and-dirty finished-quick project. If I’d had more time, I would have fussed more over the placement of the fabrics and the balance of the white with the prints. I layered it with white flannel in the same way as the other blanket.

The baby is due the first few days of January. I might have time to make one more receiving blanket, in between all the Christmas company. When he’s born, you’ll hear me shout “woohoo”!

Added later: here he is in all his glory! Big smiles all around!