So with these new bundles comes a season of sweet showers and sip and see parties. The art of gift giving has always been somewhat stressful for me. I have always wanted to get just the perfect gift...as if that really exists. So I have decided to branch out as of late and make some hand-crafted baby gifts for my friends. There are so many cute "boutique" items for babies I have seen and thought, "I think I could make that!" The latest item that came to my attention was a padded cover for a baby carrier handle. A friend of mine from my Adoptive Moms Group got one and said she loved it. So this was my effort in taking on this new project.
First I cut my foam to size. Fortunately my mom had a store of foam sheets that were just perfect for this project. You could cut your foam to any size, but I used an 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch piece of foam. The 10 1/2 inch length was just right to wrap around the carrier handle and fasten. I then cut two pieces of coordinating fabric 10" by 15". I laid the fabric right sides together and sewed them together on three sides (the two lengths and one end).
I then turned the piece right sides out and ironed to make all the fabric and edges smooth. I then cut a strip of sew on velcro to the length of the two shorter ends. I pinned one side of the velcro to the sewn end of the fabric and stitched around the velcro to secure it in place.
Once the velcro was secure, I cut a strip of grograin ribbon to match the length of the same end. I used a ribbon that was slightly wider than the velcro and cut it longer to cover the stitches from the velcro. I flipped the fabric to the opposite side and sewed the ribbon into place even with the velcro. (A great tip when cutting ribbon is to pass a lighter gently across the cut end of the ribbon. The flame seals the cut end, keeps the ribbon from fraying, and provides a nice finished look to your ribbon).
I then inserted the foam piece into the open end of the fabric pocket. (Before sewing the velcro and ribbon you may want to insert the foam and check that the fit is nice and snug inside the fabric.) After inserting the foam, I turned the cut ends of the open fabric inside and ironed the fabric to hold it in place. You want to make sure that the fabric goes past the foam just the width of your velcro and ribbon so that when you sew them in place, they will form a snug fit against your foam. Once I checked the length I pinned the open ends together and pinned the velcro in place on the opposite side of the fabric from the first piece of velcro. I then sewed the velcro to the fabric, and in the same manner as the first end, also sewed the ribbon into place.
This was the finished project. I thought it turned out well and I was pretty proud that worked on the first try!
Once I had the pad finished I decided I needed a couple of coordinating burp cloths to welcome a sweet little baby boy at his shower today. I had done the burp cloths before for a baby girl by taking a towel cut to size and sewing it together with a coordinating piece of fabric - right sides together and leaving a hole to turn it right-side-out. Once turned out, I ironed it and then made another stitch slightly inside the outer edge around the cloth. Then I simply hand-stitched the small opening I had left on the outside. I made two burp cloths to match the pad for this particular gift (I also include pics of the ones I made for baby girl).
This was such a fun project to do...even for a person with minimal sewing skills such as myself! I never once got frustrated (as I can often do with other sewing projects)! So I hope if you want to take a stab at making hand made baby gifts this is helpful to you. I'm trying to get better taking pics with each step of the process and hopefully simplify as time goes by. Feel free to pass this along to your crafty friends and pass along any craft ideas to me! Bye for now...
