My go-to baby present for many years has been a changing mat – hand towel on one side, fabric and pockets on the other, and it all folds up nicely and fastens with ribbon. I still enjoy making these (and I get great big thumbs up from the parents!), but I wanted to make something different this time around, and I had two lots of Spoonflower organic cotton jerseys I fancied using.
I actually made these way back in early April, but since they were both gifts, I needed to wait until both sets of parents received them before I could share them with you. But since I made them so long ago, the details are a little hazy in my mind, so apologies for anyone looking for a particularly useful pattern review here!
I sifted through my digital pattern archive and selected #145 from the March 2011 Burda magazine (it’s not on the US Burda site so you’ll have to refer to the Russian archive). I liked the versatility of the design, that it looked quite handy to wrap a baby up in, but that it was also easy to sew and could fit into the two fat quarters I had of each of the fabrics.
For our local friends’s newborn baby girl, I selected the meat fabric and used the 3 months size. I knew the parents would laugh their heads off and be happy that it wasn’t predominantly pink, too. I didn’t actually get to see the baby wearing it since she was asleep at the time, but I’m just going to assume she’ll grow into it!
The circuitry jacket is for one of my best friend’s baby, who has shamefully lived the first 6 months of her life without a sewn gift from me (I know!!), so to make up for it, I made the 12 month size, hoping that she’ll grow into it right around Fall when it starts to cool off again. I have indeed seen photos of her wearing it, and I can attest that a) it is rather big on her but b) she’s beaming her little face off she’s so happy to be dressed like a 1337 h8×0r!
One main change I made to both patterns here is that I made them in jerseys instead of the wovens intended in the directions, and I used FOE to bind the neckline edges instead of binding fabric. The pattern also indicates extending the binding to use as ties, whereas I just inserted press snaps on the outer and inner edges to keep things closed. Much neater, and these should stand up to repeated hot water washings much better, too!
Anyone else got a good go-to baby present they sew up for new arrivals?