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.
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.
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.
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.
So, I decided to wrap up a teddy bear. This almost Grandma clearly needs swaddle wrapping instructions!
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!!!
XOXO,
Anna
They look so pretty and soft pegged out like that. She is going to be a cosy little baby.
cute swaddles! hope teddy slept well x
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
So cute! You must be getting SO excited…buckle your seatbelt!
so sweet! Babies do love to be swaddled and these are lovely.
Oh! Scruff’s face… priceless.
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!!!
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.
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
Very cute swaddling cloths ….. then you had to spoil it with that darn cat!!
I’ve never used the double gauze, but it sounds intriguing. All your swaddles/receiving blankets look just perfect!
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. :)
They’re all lovely, Anna. This wee baby’s going to be well-swaddled! :o)
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!
They’re beautiful Anna. I’ve never heard of double gauze before. It’s so soft looking and pretty.
Very sweet. Glad you all had such a good time.
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
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.
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.
Those swaddles are darling! You are having fun :)
Lovely. I like your clothesline pic!
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!
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.
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.