Grocery Shrink

Baby gift Idea #2. Are you brave?  How brave?

Brave enough to sew with knit?  What if it were free? (Well… free according to the craft hoarders rule book.)

Photo Credit ThisMamaMakesStuff.com

If you have a spare t-shirt, you could make a darling infant gown with it and if it doesn’t work out….you only lost the shirt.   Even better, The pattern is free from This Mama Makes Stuff.  Her tutorial includes how to make the fold over cuffs to protect the babies from their own sharp fingernails.

Here are my sewing with knit tips:  Use a ball point needle to keep from tearing permanent holes in the knit.  Use a longer stitch length.  If you can reduce the pressure on the foot a little to keep the fabric from stretching out of shape.  If you have a walking foot, you could do that instead.  If things do get stretched out of shape, try to steam them back with the iron. Then just relax and enjoy it.  Sewing with knit is my FAVORITE!  No basting to ease in seams, it just goes together like a dream. You are going to love it!

If you have some fabric leftover from the shirt make a matching hat:

Free pattern here:

Preemie hat pattern

and a less ink printable pattern PreemieKnottyHat

If the knit is fairly stretchy it will fit a newborn well too.  It’s on my 9lb 2 ounce bouncing baby boy above.

So Let’s say the shirt was “free” and you got the gown and hat out of it.  And then spent $3.75 on flannel to make a blanket and 2 burp cloths….You could wrap the gown, hat, and burp cloths inside the blanket (using the blanket as “wrapping paper”) and man, what a cute gift you have for less than $5 and about 2 hours worth of sewing.  Aren’t you clever?!

I love giving, but sometimes I get gift anxiety.  What if they don’t like it?  What if they think I’m cheap? What if I spent all that time and it doesn’t come out right?

These feelings could all be avoided if I just went to the store and purchased something and gave them the gift receipt.  Sometimes I do that.  But this year….oh my!  I think everyone and their dog is planning to get married and have a baby this year, then throw a birthday party and invite one of our kids to it.  I’m glad they are, and super glad they invited us.  Sometimes the gift budget doesn’t stretch.

It just gives a reason to be a little more creative, right?

(I once talked to a friend, who admitted to turning down birthday party invitations for her kids because they couldn’t afford a gift.  Hey, y’all.  Don’t do that here, mk?  I’d rather have you sans gift then let you worry one moment about finances.  Our kids have enough stuff and they won’t even notice, I promise.)

So I thought I’d talk about gifting this month a bit and give some ideas for what to do for baby showers, weddings, kid birthdays and such.

First up is this one yard baby gift.  You will need 1 yard of flannel; and 1 clean towel or scrap of terry cloth  at least 16 x 18 inches. At Hobby Lobby 1 yard of flannel is $5.99 use a coupon and this gift will cost around $3.75 (with tax.) I used knit terry leftover from diaper making. If you use woven terry, use as thin a terry as you can get–cheap towels are perfect.

First find the selvage edge of your fabric that is printed all the way to the edge.  Cut an 8 inch strip off this edge, then cut it in half to get two 18 by 8 inch pieces.  (These will become 2 burp cloths.)

Cut the remaining fabric into a perfect square.  I fold it into a triangle and cut off what’s hanging off–super technical method ;). This will be a perfect receiving blanket between 36 and 34 inches square.  Ever notice that the store bought ones are too tiny to be any good?  I used to make mine 45″ square, but really those were too big.  These are perfect.

Fold the flannel square into fourths, perfectly lining up the corners.  Take some time to do this well. Then, find something round and trace a rounded edge on the outer corner.  (Double check–no folds here, at all–right?) Then cut it out. (I used a Scentsy top–see the logo? #notanashtray)

Next run the edge of the blanket through a serger adjusted for a rolled hem. No serger?  Try this.

At the place where you start and stop, dab a little bit of fray check to keep it from unravelling.

 To finish the burp clothes use the 2 flannel 8 x 18 pieces you cut out as a pattern to cut 2 pieces of terry cloth.  Place the rectangles right sides together and stitch around the outside with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leave a 3″ space for turning.

Turn right side out and press.  Then top stitch a scant 1/4 inch away from the edge all the way around.  This will close up the hole and make these wash and dry nice and flat.

1 yard = 1 receiving blanket and 2 burp clothes for $3.75. (Update 3 years later and flannel is on sale for $2.50–score!)

High Five!

If your budget is a little bigger than that, buy 2 coordinating yards and make double.  Or add a toy or an outfit.

I’ll show you what else you can do with these tomorrow.