Puppy Love layette set

So another friend was expecting a baby and I think she was in denial. I don’t think they did any prep till 36 weeks. I’m freaking out a little bit for her because lots of people deliver at 36 weeks. She didn’t have her bag packed or anything. Here I am Ms. Prepared, semi-control freak, near panic attack and it’s not even my baby. I’m really not sure why it bothered me so. I like to procrastinate as much as the next person. In fact I had done just that with her gift. I’d finished the crocheted puppy hat two months ago but couldn’t decide what to go with it.

She’d mentioned a Moby wrap, so I thought about taking her fabric shopping and making her one. She’d been working really hard lately and I hadn’t seen much of her; so the possibility of a day trip to town seemed slim. I could monogram a burp cloth. Careful search thru all the fonts I had and a few I didn’t resulted in the realization that the letter J is either too dull or too feminine for her little boy on the way. I had purchased some flannel for making burp cloths or receiving blankets a year or so ago. so I dug into my stash and to my surprise there was a puppy dog print. Yay!

Ok. So now I have this cute hat and some flannel to match. So what to make? Thinking back, one of my favorite gifts was an oversized receiving blanket. the reason I loved it? My second BB (bouncing boy) was a nine pounder. And all those pretty name brand receiving blankets were too small to swaddle sweet BB2. So a receiving blanket it is. Now to figure out how big. Of course the treasured blanket was no where in sight to compare (it was 36″ when it appeared the following week). I finally settled on 42″ square.

Now what else? While I’m in the sewing mood I added a little scrap of the flannel to dress up one of the white Gerber diapers I used as burpcloths. And while I’m at it why not make one of those flannel diaper burpcloths that I liked so well. I followed these instructions for the 4-6-4 flannel diaper. It’s also a very interesting post on using cloth diapers if anyone has a notion.

I added a jar of the coffee scrub for Mom and some baby hangers.
I packaged it all up in a little blue laundry basket from the dollar tree with some tissue and pretty ribbon. Wish I’d remembered to take a picture. Maybe next time.

Toad-ally Cute Layette

Here’s my second layette set. This time for a precious little boy. The hat was surprising easy. I couldn’t decide whether to include the braids or not but I’m glad I did. I think it takes the cuteness way up. The burp cloth was made from the six ply padded diapers so I couldn’t see through it to trace the pattern. Since I didn’t have a transfer pencil (mainly because I think $5 is too much to pay for it) the design is free-hand. This was my first attempt at couching. I think I might have placed my couching stitches too close because it looks like a whipped back stitch to me. Here’s the link to instructions for the froggy hat.

Ladybug Layette

I have lots of friends having babies this year. Here is a photo of the first layette set. I just learned to crochet a last month so this is my first attempt at crocheting a hat. Actually 2nd. I followed the pattern for infant but it turned out big enough for my 2yr old nephew so I did a second and scaled it down for a baby.

Here are directions and links to the patterns for the headband and ladybug hat.

And here’s a picture of the beautiful baby girl wearing the hat.