Thimbleanna

Baby Swaddles

SweetiePie and FinallyAGirl had their first baby shower yesterday and we had a lot of fun.  SweetiePie’s family went all out on the baby shower decorations and food, and everything was just perfect!  And now that she has received her gifts, I can show you a few of the things that I made for her.

I raided all the double gauze in my little etsy shop and made some baby swaddles.  Back in the day, we used to wrap our babies up (but not as tightly as they do now) and we just called them receiving blankets.  As far as I can tell, it’s pretty much the same thing, except that I made my little receiving blankets with two layers of fabric instead of one layer.  Swaddles are so easy to make — I just cut big squares (50″ for the plaid swaddles and 43″ for the other two) and folded the edges in twice for a nice, neat edge.

Thimbleanna: Baby Swaddles

The three plaid swaddles are from Riley Blake fabrics and the other two are Japanese fabrics.  The Japanese double gauze is a little more expensive, but it’s thicker and a bit softer — it was interesting to compare the two types of gauze for quality — they’re both just great, but a little different.

Thimbleanna: Baby Swaddles

After hemming the first swaddle with just a plain straight stitch, I got a little bored, so I decided to play around with some of the stitches on my sewing machine.  I love the little pink hearts, but I really love the simplicity of the little wavy line on the gray plaid swaddle.

Thimbleanna: Baby Swaddles

Since we don’t have any babies here yet, I asked Scruff if I could practice wrapping him in a swaddle.  He retreated to his favorite cardboard box.

Thimbleanna: Scruff

So, I decided to wrap up a teddy bear.  This almost Grandma clearly needs swaddle wrapping instructions!

Thimbleanna: Baby Swaddles

So, one fun little baby project all done and checked off the list.  There are more to come and I better get crackin’ … sooo, see ya later Alligator!!!

Thimbleanna: Baby Swaddles

XOXO,
Anna

23 thoughts on “Baby Swaddles”

  1. Such sweet swaddles! I used to love swaddling my own babies and more recently my grand babies and they seemed to love it too. You did a great job on swaddling teddy there….he looks very secure and contented :) If there are any more babies in our family I will make some swaddles too using those gorgeous fabrics!
    Helen xox

  2. Your swaddles are adorable! And so is Scruff – adorable. I always make receiving blankets out of flannel and also make them bigger than usual. So the kids get to enjoy them as they are growing. I have had to make new ones for our friends’ children because they end up as security blankets and get worn out. Little Elise would bite a hole in the corner so she could hold her blanket up to her face and secretly suck her thumb. I wonder how long it takes a little one to learn to escape the swaddle :o) Fun times ahead for sure!!!

  3. Had to laugh about the swaddled bear. Pity the cat didn’t play along! Your swaddling blankets are cute and look so soft and cuddly. PS: apropos of nothing; did you know that swaddling babies is not really done in Switzerland and Germany. I was astonished when they did it in Australia when I had my second baby there.

  4. those are adorable!! wish i had thought of that..needed a good baby present idea recently. i made a small quilt because i had no other ideas. damn! well, next time. ;p

  5. The swaddles are lovely. What a nice gift for the new baby. I saw a big change in “swaddle culture” just between my two babies, born in 2005 and 2008. With the first, dedicated swaddle blankets were fairly rare and we just used flannel receiving blankets. By the time I had my second baby, swaddles were everywhere, in a million different forms! I had some fleece ones with velcro closures that were useful but I still mostly used flannel blankets. I would have liked ones like yours a lot. Maybe I’ll make them for my grandchildren someday. :)

  6. The baby waddles are SO awesome. Thanks to YOU, I know now what double gauze is. My daughter and DILs all have the gauze swaddle blankets and they just love them. They are used for more than swaddling. They are used for shade from the sun, for nursing covers, for light blankets, and for “night-nights.” One of my DILs cut a swaddle up into quarters so her little one could have a “night-night” in her purse and she can wash them and cycle them through when they get dirty and stinky from thumb sucking.

    I love your idea to hem with the pretty stitches. I’m going to remember that for my next project. Smart girl!

  7. that commenter up above who said you did a good job on swaddling your bear was just being nice. so when my firstborn came along, one of the nurses at the hospital showed me how to swaddle him and i swear i had to wake him up to feed him! offspring#2 doesn’t listen to us and hasn’t jumped on the swaddling bandwagon so favoritehuman wakes up constantly! isn’t that grounds for custody? will the judge go for that?
    :dreams blissfully about that baby living at MY house

  8. Handmade is best, especially from grandma. Those are super sweet swaddles and Scruff cracks me up!!! Some “rules” of caring for babies never change. In the two years between my kids it was lay baby on her tummy with head to the side. Then it was lay baby on his side. Have you ever tried to lay a swaddled baby on his side and expect him to stay that way? LOL If I’m ever a grandma, I’ll have to go to remediation classes.

  9. Such pretty swaddles! Next time Teddy will be running for the cardboard box when it’s swaddling time. The photo of them hanging on the line is beautiful.

  10. So very pretty and I love the idea of decorative stitches. I have the skirt from the gauze hemmed and hope to get it finished this week now that we are home. It does sew up very nicely. And I am so anxious to see what else you’ve been working on!

  11. How interesting! As far as I’m aware, swaddling doesn’t happen here, though I know the word from the Nativity story. When my children were babies, the hospital did wrap them tightly for the first day or two, but after that my children seemed to like more freedom. Maybe I’m out of touch, but I don’t think N and L got swaddled and L is just 3.

  12. Your swaddles are so cozy looking. I think I would like one big enough for a summer nap although I don’t need to be tightly wrapped. I keep rereading your hysterical cleaning comments. I don’t want you to get hurt either. I will keep that in mind around my house. I have been cleaning too much lately and it is definitely cutting into my quitting time.

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