DIY Baby Blanket & Burp Cloths

Tonight I got my sewing machine out for the first time in over a year. 

I was worried I wasn't going to remember how to use it, but it was like riding a bike. I just picked it right back up like I'd never stopped sewing.

Tonight I made a beautiful blanket for Lilly Belle. 

Excuse the crappy photos. It's 10:30pm and our apartment has terrible lighting. I did the best I could to edit them and lighten them up. I'm still learning how to use Aperture on our Mac. 

DIY Baby Blanket:

{Note: I am not a professional seamstress, everything I know I either learned from sewing with my mother-in-law twice or from watching my mom a few times growing up. And...YouTube.}

1. Cut 2 pieces of fabric out to your desired measurements. I wanted it to be a smaller blanket for tummy time and to use as a stroller blanket. It actually turned out to be smaller than I planned. Mine was 27"x27".

2. Lay the 2 pieces of fabric out facing each other (inside out).

3. I wanted a lace edging, so before pinning my sides together, I went along slowly and inserted the lace first. 

4. Also note that I wanted this blanket to have rounded corners, so I just used a bowl and cut along the edge with my rotary cutter. 

5. Once my fabric and lace edging was all pinned together, I just took it to the sewing machine and went around the whole thing, leaving about 6" at the end open so I could flip it inside out.

6. Pin the open seam closed.

7. Go around the entire blanket one more time creating a new fresh visible edge. This will also close up that opening you made. 

{If I were to do this whole process properly, I would have first washed the fabric...it's going to shrink all weird but I didn't have the patience. And you should also iron the fabric before and during as well.}

Messiest work station of all time. This is because I start like 50 projects at once and then just go with the one that gets my attention the most. Ah, I'm so all over the place sometimes. Oh, to be creative...

I actually did not know Matt was taking pictures of me :)

TADA! 

I'm pretty excited about how it turned out. Sure...there are a bunch of mistakes, but I just call that love :) Lilly will definitely know I made this for her!

My sewing madness didn't stop there.

I'm going to my friend Melissa's baby shower on Sunday and her sweet baby girl's nursery is a jungle theme. I had this adorable fabric in my fabric bin so I had to use it for her! 

I decided to make her some burp cloths. I need to make some for Lilly too, because that is the one baby item we do not have yet.

DIY Burp Cloths:

Need: Cloth Diaper, Fat Quarter of fabric

1. Measure out your piece of fabric to be 21"x7".

2. Iron both your fabric and your cloth diaper. For these, I did actually do this step because they are for a gift. 

3. Line up your fabric on top of the cloth diaper and fold in all 4 sides to create a nice fold along the edges.

4. Pin all around.

5. Sew! ... Done! 

So fast to make. I can make one in about 10 minutes or less :)

 I love the way these turned out for Baby Makenna! 

I bought some felt tonight for flower headbands/clips as well as some more lace for edging. I am for sure going to craft through the weekend. Matt has an exam and a test this weekend. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. He studied all day and all night and then went to bed at 10pm and has his alarm set for like 6am to study more in the morning. Looks like a whole lot of crafting time for me!!!

Well, hopefully someone is inspired to craft from this post :) Feels good to be back in action!