I think the first I would like to share is some excellent ideas for a baby shower gifts. (I also have another idea in progress, thanks to my mom, that I will hopefully complete soon.)
The first one I can take no credit for, my friend Jessica made these for her first baby. Probably because she couldn't find any burp clothes that were stylish enough for her little boy. Plus she is an insatiable crafter just like me!
These are what she named "Diapies"! Because they are made from pre-fold cloth diapers.
This whole process could not be simpler and more fun!
(Well picking out the fabric is my personal favorite part.)
I asked the mom to be what her nursery or baby colors or pattern preferences were. She told me "cupcakes, butterflies, pink and ponies". So this is what I came up with...
12 diapies with 3 patterned fabrics. I even remembered to laundry them before I gift wrapped them!
This is a view of them unfolded to show you how huge they are! Big enough to protect any shoulder from the occasional to not so occasional post feeding spit up. Trust me they were very well tested with my friend's baby and they work awesome. And not just for burp clothes but the random spill cleaner upper or make shift bib even. I'm sure there are tons of uses but that is all I can come up with at the moment...
Sure you could just buy the pack of pre-fold diapers and call them diapies, but without that extra cute fabric touch its just not the same.
I promise its an easy sew.
- Just cut the fabric the same with width and shape as the middle of the pre-fold with an added 1/4" sew allowance around all sides.
- Iron under all the edges.
- Sew a straight or even zig-zag sew all the way around.
This will not be an unwanted gift. Even a first time mother will appreciate the need for a good set of burp clothes. And no one else will have brought any quite like it. Even if you have super crafty friends, the chances of picking the same fabric are almost 0%, really.
But I'm not done yet! I bought an extra pattern of fabric, because it was so darn cute, while getting fabric for the diapies. Then I suddenly realized, "What am I going to do with this?!"
I searched the internet and etsy even pinterest looking for ideas. Then standing in a craft store I remembered seeing a project on Little Miss Momma a while back featuring a fabric memo board. Okay I can do this. Trying to remember what I need from looking at this post about 3 months ago, I bought corkboard and ribbon and found a few cute buttons in my stash. When I actually looked up the post, it was not at all how she made it, so from there is became my own creation.
- I hot glued the fabric onto the corkboard.
- Then I crisscrossed the ribbon also securing with hot glue.
- Then the buttons, yes I also hot glued them.
It doesn't quite work for a plush memory board, but it is a corkboard so tacks will work. (Even though I felt silly saying it, I did warn the mom to be not to put this near the baby's crib, between the buttons and tacks I didn't want to harm her first born.)
Also I used a different color of the same patterned fabric to make her name in plush letters.
- I just chose a font on Word that I liked.
- Printed the letters nice and big and cut them out.
- And used that as a template to trace onto the wrong side of the fabric.
- Finally I sewed and stuffed like any old plushie.
Another cute idea would have been to make the whole alphabet in plush letters but after these three projects I ran out of time till the baby shower.
So I gave you not 1 not 2 but 3 ideas for do it yourself baby shower gifts. I expect you people to get out there and start sewing for your mom and dad to be friends!
Or at least appreciate these cute ideas and smile when you look at the adorable fabrics.
