Recently one of my friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Flynn – his birthday is only a few days apart from my son’s, which was pretty exciting for us to see who would pop first.  I wanted to make him a few special items so I settled on a set of bibs and a knitted blanket.  I decided on a navy and grey colour scheme based on the prominent themes in my friend’s Pinterest baby board (thanks Pinterest!).

Knitted Baby Blanket

I chose a 50% acrylic, 50% cotton slub yarn by Lanatex Yarns in Indigo Blue.  It was knitted by machine on my Singer 360K knitting machine using the HK-100 ribbing attachment.  The blanket has a slight texture, but it fed through the machine nicely since the yarn was waxed.

Homemade Baby Boy Gifts - Knitted Blanket with Binding Edge

I wasn’t sure if this binding technique was going to work, but I took a risk and sewed a binding on the blanket in the same way that I would with one of my quilt projects.  The risk paid off because I’m in love with the outcome!  I chose a grey fabric with a dainty white circle print on it.  After sewing the binding on, I used an embroidery stitch on my Husquavarna sewing machine in a coordinating navy thread.

homemadebabyboygifts_blanket_binding

I attached the binding to the top and bottom edges of the blanket, sewing the binding on by sewing machine.  The blanket is pretty stretchy since it’s made with the ribber, so the binding had to be pinned in place often in order to keep the knit fabric from stretching out of shape while sewing.

Homemade Baby Boy Gifts - Knitted Blanket with Binding EdgeApplique Elephant Baby Bibs

This was my first time making baby bibs.  I didn’t have a bib pattern so I traced an existing bib to get the shape.  The front side is a quilting cotton in navy and white polka dot, and the back side is a white flannelette.  I hope the backing will be absorbent enough.

I sketched the little elephant on paper first then cut it out from fabric and attached it to the fabric using Heat and Bond.  I stitched around the elephant using a blanket stitch on my Husquavarna machine. The ears are my favourite part since you can see the polka dot background in the gap. I layered the fabric right sides together, sewed around the outside edges and left a gap for turning.  After flipping it back right side out, I hammered in the no-sew snaps. Voila, instant bibs!

Homemade Baby Boy Gifts - Baby Bibs with Elephant Embroidery

I was originally going to just make one bib, but I made a pair of them since I had just enough of the polka dot fabric to make two.  Why not?  I made one elephant face left and the other face right.

I think baby bibs are going to become my go-to baby shower gift because they are so cute and so quick to sew up.  It’s easy to customize them to the chosen theme of the mom and baby.

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