Baby inspirations

Cutting out back of burp cloth

I have been inspired by my own pregnancy to start making baby items. The first thing I made was a receiving blanket and then moved on to the matching burp cloths and next I will try to tackle the bib. With a neat little trick my mom taught me, I found the receiving blankets to be very easy to conquor; if you would like a tutorial let me know and I can put one together. Now for the burp cloth. I personally thought this would have been the simple one for me, but me and my big ideas decided it would be a good idea to put a diaper liner inside the burp cloth because who doesn't want more absorbency when it comes to a burp cloth, right. So I started with the diaper insert since that is where I got the idea of adding a burp cloth to my blanket set. I used Kushies 

Pin both sides right side together

washable diaper liners to make my pattern. Using light weight interfacing, but newspaper works just as well; place the diaper liner on the interfacing. Using a ruler add three inches around the diaper liner to get your pattern. Once my pattern was ready I used it to cut a front piece and back piece to match the receiving blanket. Pin both pieces together wrong sides faced out to begin the outside seam, be sure to leave a gap large enough to insert the diaper liner. Once you stitch the edge, turn the cloth inside out so your pattern side is now on the outside. I find pressing the edges at this point helpful. Insert the diaper liner

Diaper liner should be inside

and center between both sides. On the photo to the left you can see the diaper liner on top of the cloth, just imagine it between the burp cloth layers like a diaper liner sandwich. If you prefer not to put the diaper liner feel free to leave it out, I just added it for extra padding and absorption. At this point you can stitch the outside seam. Starting at the opening you left to turn it right side out, top stitch to seal and continue around until you meet back up to the beginning. Once you do the outer edge, top stitch the diaper liner in place. I find by feeling the edge of the diaper liner you can line it up as you stitch over it, just make sure to leave enough of a hem to hold it in place, you wouldn't want it balling up in there after the first wash. Which I imagine would happen if you don't stitch it down. If you have trouble finding the

Top stitch edge and liner

edge as you sew try pressing the cloth with the iron to get an idea of the edge of the diaper liner edge, or you can use a washable pen, just be sure to do a test wash to make sure the pen comes out. Once you finish your top stitch you have completed your burp cloth. If you are just starting out you can try leaving out the diaper liner and just use multiple layers of flannel to add absorbancy or cut a rectangle cloth to avoid rounded edges. These make great baby shower gifts, you can pair it with a homemade receiving blanket, customize it to go with any theme the new parents to be have, plus who doesn't like a home made present. I hope you have as much fun making these as I do.  I would love to hear your story on making your own baby blankets and burp cloths. Happy crafting!

Happy Easter!

For Easter we had our gender reveal. After scouring through the Bump, Pinterest and other sites for fun ways to tell our family we finally decided to stick with the Easter theme, after all it is Easter. Easter holds a special place in my heart, not only because of fun childhood memories of coloring eggs, wonderfully delicious meals and fun times with family; but because this is now the holiday that I will remember as the day my Husband proposed to me. That's right, he placed my ring in my Easter basket and very silly suggested we open our baskets one at a time, so we could make sure to get

good photos. I must admit I was very surprised when I opened that egg, I knew he was going to propose but I did not know when. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. So that being said Easter is a very special day for us.
This year we had a very special announcement to make, to announce the gender of our little one. Since telling our family we were expecting there have been guesses as to if we are having a boy or girl. I felt I knew, I didn't need a test to tell me but in the chance that I am wrong it would put everyone (my husband) at ease. We knew we had a fifty fifty chance that one of would be right each convinced we were correct. Well that debate was put to rest last Friday when my husband and I went to the doctor and were told just what we should be expecting. Once I found out came the

question of how to tell the family. We decided to wait until Easter in order to tell most of our family at one time. Using different colored plastic eggs I filled each with paper grass then the little blue Peep. I stamped then cut out the 'sweet baby' banners, then cut out the blue polka dot banner and wrote the due date. I glued both banners on a tooth pick, poked the stick into the Peep and closed the egg.  I placed all the little eggs into a basket and handed them out on Easter. Well if your wondering I was right,  I believed we were having a boy and it was confirmed. Both my husband and I are happy to be on this new journey and look forward to it with excitement and can't help but wonder what our little guy is going to be like. I hope if any of you out there got to do a gender reveal on Easter you were able to have a little fun with it, I know we did. If you did do a gender reveal I wold be curious to know how you did it and if everyone was surprised. Happy Crafting.