Baby Gifts

Last Christmas, I made nearly every gift I gave as part of my new sustainable outlook on life. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to carry the gift of homemade through every occasion to come including birthdays, other holidays and of course, new babies. Here I will show you some of the recent baby gifts I made for two of my expecting friends.

My friend who gave birth in July followed my path (cause of course I pave the way everywhere) and decided not to find out the sex of her child. The other friend I made things for found out she was having a boy, so my challenge was purchasing cloth that could serve both of those specifications. I generally start my shopping in the remnant bin and was fortunate enough to find a gender neutral baby pattern with which I made the gift bags for both women. 

Though I only knew for sure that one of my friends is going to cloth diaper, I decided to make both of them cloth wipes anyway because they can be so versatile and you never really know what they might be good for. Additionally, I wanted to make sure they both had a wet bag because besides cloth diapers, they're really good for wet or soiled clothes when you're out and a toy or two because...who doesn't love a homemade baby toy?

At this point, I'm sure you just want to see what this crap looks like, so here you go. The first pictures were include the gender neutral gifts and the second, obviously, are for the boy.

In this first photo, you will see the gift bag in the back, the wet bag to the left, the cloth wipes in front and the awesome crinkle toy behind them (It's a really cool thing to make. Do check it out.) and on the far right is a set of multipurpose burp cloths.

The morning of the shower, I pounded out this duck. Literally. I made it in a about an hour and a half and then shoved it in the bag and walked out the door. It is important to note that the friend who received this set of gifts has been showered with ducks her entire life and though I knew her child would be as well, I went ahead and made it anyway.

And then we have the bag all stuffed and ready to go. I really loved making this entire gift.

I had some help taking the pictures of this second set, so please don't mind the little fingers in the corner of each picture.

I made my other friend three different sets of cloth wipes: two sets were plain flannel on both sides and one set is the homemade concoction I created. Then I also made her a crinkle toy, wet bag and a really large burp cloth that could double as a blanket or changing pad or peek-a-boo rag at any place or time.

While I did use a sewing machine for most of these items, I sewed the wet bags and my version of cloth wipes by hand, as well as the crinkle toys. And like I said, I loved it. I just wish I had more time to devote to really concentrating on sewing like this.

Long live sustainability!