Dick and Jane Baby Blankets

Several months ago I came across some fabulous Dick and Jane fabric that I just had to have. Of course, I had no clue what I was going to do with it and it ended up sitting around in my stash for quite a while (like so much of the fabric that I buy). Well, the print is just too large to be of real use in my dolls, but I figured I'd eventually come up with something.

Then I had my "ah-hah" moment. What if I made them into baby blankets? That would be a good use, right? But I got to looking at some of the blankets that I use now for my little girl, and the ones that are a full yard are just too big and unwieldy. So I was stuck pondering on baby blanket sizes and what would be ideal.

Then I thought, "Well, wouldn't it be better if I made a burp cloth to match the blanket? That would be way better than just a blanket. Who doesn't like sets of things? I like sets of things." Of course, just a plain ole piece of cotton fabric doesn't make for a very good burp cloth. It'd soak right on thru that. From my experience, cloth diapers make the best burp cloths - very absorbent. So I knew what I had to with my Dick and Jane fabric.

And this is what I did:

1) Get 1 yard of each of 2 coordinating cotton fabrics.

2) Get 2 premium prefolded cotton cloth diapers from the store.

3) Wash and dry everything to pre-shrink. Iron everything. (And boy, do those diapers shrink and wrinkle-up.)

4) Measure cloth diaper. Cut a piece from the corner of each fabric to measured size.

5) With right sides together, pin one fabric piece to one diaper. Do the same with the other fabric on the second diaper.

6) Sew most of the way around, leaving about 4 inches open at the bottom.

7) Turn burp cloth right side out and hand-sew opening closed.

8) Iron flat at the seams.

9) Use a 1" seam allowance - sew around each burp cloth to finish off.

10) Take the big pieces of fabrics, lay flat with right sides together. Cut into an even rectangle for the blanket.

11) Sew most of the way around, leaving about 4 inches open at the bottom.

12) Turn blanket right side out and hand-sew opening closed.

13) Iron flat at the seams.

14) Use a 1" seam allowance - sew around the blanket to finish it off.

My finished blankets turned out to be about 26"x33". Which is a good size - large enough to wrap around baby or lay her down on, but not so large that it's dragging the ground or getting tangled up. The burp cloths are 12"x17".

So there you have it. You can make some too. I've listed for sale the Dick and Jane sets in my etsy shop at: http://www.fun4me2.etsy.com/.

I've got some more fabrics that I plan to use for more baby blanket/burp cloth sets ... some Holly Hobbie and Beatrix Potter. (Don't know what it is with me and nostalgic fabric that makes me think "baby blanket", oh well.) I really hope that I get around to making them.

Baby's Pet Pals

While pregnant with my little girl, I decided that I wanted to make her something that she could play with and drool on that was just a special little something from Mom for her. What I came up with were these little critters.

I really enjoy coming up with new patterns and I knew I wanted this one to have a variety of looks all in one, so I drew up a basic body and head shape that seemed to work for a bear, a bunny, a cat and a dog. I changed the ears on each, and voila, I had 4 different patterns in one! I even gave them embroidered tails on their bums.

When my son was little, I learned my lesson about having to constantly bend down to retrieve toys, so I liked the idea of being able to use ring links to attach them to whatever apparatus my baby might happen to be occupying at the time. I was going to make arms and legs out of looped ribbon, but found that the bottom on these dolls is just too narrow for the legs to look right. I opted to have arms only and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

They range from 5" to 6" tall and are just right for her little hands to hold onto. The pink bunny is my favorite, so of course that's the one I kept to give to my sweet little girl.

I listed the others on my etsy shop and have had good feedback on them from other mothers who bought them. I also wrote-up the pattern, Baby's Pet Pals, and have it available (http://www.fun4me.etsy.com/) so you can make them for your little lovie!

These were super easy to make and I did get a little carried away, but now I know what I'm giving as a gift at the next baby shower I go to!

Wee Ones - Free Pattern and Tutorial

Another free pattern to download! These are my "Wee Ones". They are just under 4" tall when done.

These little dolls are super fast and easy to make and are a great teether for babies and a fun little toy for toddlers and small children.

I had a good time making them. I even made more than one (which is quite something for me).

Here's what you need to do to get the pattern: 1. Click on one of the below pattern pics to have it display larger; 2. Save it to your computer; 3. Print the picture to full size*, which is 8.5" wide by 11" tall; 4. Repeat with the second pic; 5. Make your own gaggle of Wee Ones!

*For this particular pattern, it is important that the pattern pieces be printed to scale with no sizing. You may know of a better way to do this, but this is how I know to print them full size: 1. Open a Word document (or whatever your word processing software is) that is 8.5"x11"; 2. Insert the picture; 3. Format the picture to be "In Front of Text"; 4. Resize the picture to cover the entire page; 5. Print the document from Word. Like I said, you may know of an easier way to do it, but that's what I've found that works.

Enjoy!