DIY Baby Shower Gifts

Ok, if this post doesn't have proper grammar (or make any sense at all...) please forgive me. My one year old is teething four molars at once, it gives her a fever and I literally spent at least 9 hours getting her to bed last night. (And lets not get into how that wakes up my three year old.) So I'm doing my best to communicate at an understandable level.

Anyway,

We went out of town last weekend so Blake could do a 5K color run with his sister and brother in law

they had lots of fun.

 And another of his sisters had a baby shower while we were there. (We are so excited! We are getting so many cousins all of a sudden! Its great!)

I wanted to make her some things for it. And so somehow I managed to do it. A couple things I started early. And for the rest, I had one day where I worked like crazy durning nap time (Jasmine doesn't nap any more, but she has some quite play time in her room while Ruby does her second nap.) And then just really pushed through the rest of the afternoon asking the girls to entertain themselves. And I finished after they went to bed (the molars hadn't started this madness yet.)

I thought I'd show you what I made incase you are wanting to do a very esty-like DIY kinda Baby Shower Gift.

These swaddle blankets are great.

They are like the Aden + Anais ones.

I made some of these before Ruby was born and let me tell you, having a larger size swaddle blanket made me want to throw away all our old small flannel ones. These are so much easier to use. And feel so much comfier.

Here's a tutorial on how to make them.

I got my fabric at JoAnn Fabrics. (It was 40%.)

This doesn't save you TONs over the name brand because this type of fabric isn't the cheapest.

 But it does save some. Plus hand made things are special.

(Occasionally you can find some on clearance -- I found pretty cream eyelet on clearance at Hancock Fabrics when I was pregnant with Ruby.)

The gender is a surprise, so her nursery is light grey & white chevrons.

So I thought this fabric would be great for a nursing cover.

Here's a tutorial for one of these.

(This is one of MANY online, if this one doesn't make sense to you, keep googling there are many people showing how these are made. Sometimes another way of looking at things helps.)

(I left off the medal d-rings on purpose, I never liked mine...I felt like they were always readjusting themselves without permission, so eventually I took mine out. So I started out with none for this one. Hopefully she likes that. You can still adjust the length by undoing the knot. I never change the length on mine.)

And I used the left over fabric to make three cute burp cloths to match. 

Tutorial here. (Lots of online versions of this too.)

This is one I started early.

 I'm still working on my knitting skills, so this isn't perfect. But I love knitting, it's like hand meditation. And I love these bibs. I use cotton yarn, so they are great for drooly days when you want a bib that doesn't kill the outfit.
Once you get the hang of this pattern it really does knit up in a couple hours.
I kinda like to spread the cable distance out a bit more than the pattern. (For this bib I followed the pattern. For the second, non pictured , bib I spread it out more.(It has a white button, if you are curious.) I feel like it makes it more clear that its actually a cable.)



And I made her two teething necklaces. Tutorial here.

I like these because I often have to give up necklaces with babies otherwise.
They are good for teething (although my girls seem to only like these when first teething, Ruby's pretty over it now, occasionally she gives it a go still. But she's not on my lap much anymore.)
But what they really helped me with was when Ruby was in the 'scratch-my-upper-cheast-while-she-nurses' stage. She would play with the necklace instead of trying to remove my skin. SO much better!

I like to be really picky with the colors I use. I don't really want to look like I'm wearing the only necklace I'm allowed to wear. I want to look like I want to wear it.
I love black for that reason. Its classy, doesn't say anything about babies, and kinda hides the fact that your necklace is made out of fabric.
Grey patterns are my other go to. Just kinda classy and easy to pair with. (Black doesn't go with everything.)
White could work. But I get nervous about how long it would look white.


My trick for the beads is I don't technically use beads, I use these unfinished wood balls. Which I find at Hobby Lobby in the wood craft isle. (Use the 40% coupon! Bam!) That way there's no pointless hole in there, and they don't have any finish on them to chip off.

I also like to use cuter than standard ribbon to finish it off.
I used this doily ribbon on the grey. (Which is really soft and comfortable.) (Its in the scrap booking department of Hobby Lobby.) (This one's edge can be melted with a match to finish the edge off and keep from unraveling.)
And I used this scalloped edge for the black. (Over by the fabric & ribbons in Hobby Lobby.) (Sadly this one is kinda scratchy until broken in.)
(Use a coupon, or wait for a sale -- they put ribbon on sale a lot.)

Then I printed instructions for momma -- wearing, safety, and washing for the necklaces on cardstock and tied it on there with some hemp twine I had.

And that was our gift. Hopefully it all serves them well!

Maybe you'll want to give this stuff a whirl too!

P.S. I didn't have time this time, but I've also given my contoured nursing pads as shower gifts too. Or baby wearing slings. Or a baby wearing coat.