baby shower gifts

On Friday afternoon Phoebe and I ditched all real work and made some baby shower gifts for a friend who is expecting her first baby. We grabbed some onesies and cloth diapers at the store and went to work. I’ve always used cloth diapers as burp rags, but apparently this has eluded Phoebe since she asked why we were buying diapers. When I said they were for the burp rags, she said, “But mom…. they’re diapers!” Yes, they are and they make great burp rags, too.

Phoebe picked out some fabric as she really wanted to make a dress and matching burp rag. This is what she came up with. I think it came out beautiful.

I kept mine pretty simple and found some lace and some purple fabric.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making a freezer paper stencil and thought this was the perfect opportunity. I also used this tutorial and made some cute ruffles for the rear.

•  cut a piece of fabric about 7 inches by 14 inches (the width of the diaper plus an inch).
• fold over the sides so that the fabric and the diaper are the same width.
• pin fabric to diaper
• sew the 2 sides that you folded over. sew very close to the edge.
• use a close zig zag stitch to finish the bottom
• sew the top with a straight stitch
• cut a 14 inch length of ribbon
• fold over the sides to make it the width of the diaper
• pin to the top of the fabric (to hide the raw edges)
• sew along each long side of the ribbon very close to the edge.

•  cut a piece of fabric that is 4 times the width of the front of the onesie and about 10-12 inches long, depending on how long you want the dress.
• with right sides together, sew the sides (the 10-12″ sides) to make a tube
• finish the seam – we used a french seam
• hem the bottom – we just zig zagged the bottom and used ric rac to add a decorative edge and then topstitched.
• ruffle the top – we did 2 rows of long basting stitches and then pulled the string to get the ruffles.
• pin the skirt to the onesie – we pinned about an inch under the arm hole so that it has an empire waist look
• very carefully sew the skirt on to the onesie making sure that the onesie doesn’t fold up while you are turning it around. we used about a 1/4 inch seam.
• look inside the dress and make sure the onesie is smooth
• cut a length of ribbon to put on the dress (make it a little longer than the circumfrence of the dress so you can turn the end under.
• pin the ribbon to the dress, covering the raw edges
• sew the ribbon, very close to the edges, onto the dress. don’t forget to tuck the end of the ribbon under so that you have a tidy ending.
• the onesie will stretch some while you are working with it, just be careful not to stretch it too much
• to make the sleeves wavy – use a very close zig zag, like a button hole stitch, and sew off the edge. Again, it will stretch and that’s okay.
• to embellish the bodice, we ironed some fabric onto some heat and bond (the sew through kind) and then cut out a flower and then ironed the flower onto the onesie.
• sew the flower on, we used a tight zig zag
• sew a button in the center.

Here’s a great place to purchase all kinds of fabric at a fantastic price. (read our affiliate disclosure here)

Thanks for sharing with your friends!