Happy Friday everyone! Today we'll be doing some more sewing for Baby! For those wondering I'm still at 37 weeks, and trying to get as many posts as I can written in advance. Just in case Baby shows up early 😉
I was given this beautiful muslin from Mary. Mary is an amazing seamstress, I don't really see her that often, but when I do she shows me all her projects, if you're a sewist you know how fun it is to share projects!
She gave me this fabric and said I'd know what to do with it. I love the little storks flying about, they remind me of Dumbo, when the storks deliver all the animal's babies in the night.
There's a little bit over 3 yards so I decided to make a couple muslin swaddles and a few burb cloths.
Muslin Swaddle
To start I pulled out a muslin swaddle I already had and measured it's dimensions to get an idea of size.
I measured it out and got 36x41. My fabric measures out to 51, so I cut two, 1 yard pieces and removed the selvedge edge. That gave me two cuts of fabric at 36x50, it's about 9 inches wider than the store bought one but I'm sure that's fine lol. I don't really have a good cutting space, or really any rulers so cutting can be challenging.
Remember how I said most wovens can be torn? Well this muslin is not one of them. It actually has to be measured and cut. Which like I said without rulers and a cutting surface can be challenging. I hope these come out straight.
Next we'll do a nice 1/2 rolled hem along all four sides.
And all done! My swaddle is slightly larger than the store bought one, but I can't imagine that makes much difference.
Update: Baby Kim showed up a couple weeks after dropping this post. Here's a pic of her all wrapped up in her swaddle.
Rectangular Burp Cloth
Even though I had enough fabric to make three swaddles I thought it might be fun to do some burp cloths as well. Luckily I still had two hand towels leftover from my post 'Washcloths for Baby'
I started by folding my hand towels in half lengthwise cutting along the fold. Then I cut off the binding. From there I measured the width out to 10 1/2 inches. That left me with four 10 1/2x 15 pieces of terry cloth.
I used the terry cloth as a pattern to cut out identical pieces of muslin.
Right sides together I sewed around all the edges leaving a small gap to turn. Then clipped all the corners before turning it right side out.
Next I topstitched the edges closing up the hole and giving the burp cloths as nice finish. Remember topstitches are usually a wider stitch done at 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch away from the edge.
And there you have it, four of the rectangular burp cloths.
Shaped Burp Cloth
There seems to be a bit of a debate on whether the rectangular or shaped burp cloths are better. So me, being me of course I had to make both.
I downloaded a free pattern from Welcome to Nana's which can be found here. https://welcometonanas.com/homemade-baby-burp-cloths/
You can follow her tutorial, or do your own thing like I did.
I actually stitched the pattern together instead of taping it (I couldn't find my tape) and then cut the whole thing out.
I layed out my leftover fabric and cut the burb rags out.
I repeated the process out of this light green terry cloth scrap I found in my stash at my parents house.
Every time I visit I dig around to see what I can find to bring home and sew up. I haven't movevmy studio over yet. Between the kitchen remodel and prepping Baby's room I was too overwhelmed to do the studio too.
I'm sure you're familiar with this part by now!
Right sides together sew 3/8 inch around the burp cloth leaving a small gap to turn.
Notch your seams being careful not to cut through your stitches then turn right side out.
Topstitch around the project closing up the hole and giving the burp cloths as nice finish.
And there you have it! Two swaddles, four rectangular burp cloths, two shaped burp cloths. And I have used up all the fabric Mary gifted me for Baby.
I know this is my third Sewing for Baby project, and some of you who are not expecting may feel like these posts are not useful. Even if you aren't expecting, all of these items make great, thoughtful gifts for people with babies, or who are expecting. If there's extra time, and you enjoy sewing try your hand at some extra projects, and give them away!
I love gifting homemade items, and getting homemade items, they always feel more special that way.
I'm working on getting as many posts done in advance so there won't be a long hiatus after Baby arrives. Wish me luck!!!
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