Projects

This is a summary of some of the things that I have been making for Eric since the beginning of the pregnancy. As I work on this, I'll try to link back to the sources that I used to help me make each of these items.
1. The puppy binkie
2. The cloth family picture book
3. The baby sling
4. The swaddle blanket
5. The tie-dye shirts and onesies
6. The transfer t-shirts
7. Corn starch finger paints
8. Homemade play dough
9. The stroller liner on the pimped out cheap stroller
10. The baby food
11. Eric's fondant birthday cakes
12. Cloth baby wipes

1. The bow-wow lovey or puppy binkie ;)

Eric loves dogs. Even before he was born, though, I had a hunch that he would. So, one of the first things that I made for him was a blanket, with the four corners as paws, that has a puppy head and tail. It ended up being pretty simple to make. I cut out a piece of a fluffy blanket that I figured would be a good size for a baby to hold. Then, I found a free pattern online for a dog stuffed animal. I actually used this pattern for a stuffed dachshund. Instead of using the whole pattern, though, I cut out the patterns of only the head and neck, and of the tail. Once I made and stuffed the head (with the scraps leftover from cutting out the head), I tucked the raw edges inside, and I sewed the head near one edge at the center of the blankie. I also made a tail, stuffed it, and sewed it along the same center line, but towards the opposite edge.

To quickly finish off the project, I folded over the edges of the blanket and sewed them, tied the corners of the blanket to make the "paws," and hand sewed on a face for the puppy.

View from underneath

Eric really likes his puppy blanket!!

2. The cloth family picture book (mentioned here)

Kids like pictures, especially when they are pictures of people, and pets, that they know. They tend to be rough on books, though, so I decided to make a more baby friendly type book for Eric by making it out of cloth. It was really simple to make in the end. I used a simple, cotton fabric for the pages, and cut them into long rectangles so that when they are folded down the center, they become the perfect size for a page.

To make it all look finished, I used two rectangles for each page, sewed them together, right sides in, leaving a small area unsewed so I could flip them inside out. I finished sewing the open edge up, and I had one page finished. I repeated the same operation for the rest of the pages.

For the cover, I got a piece of old tablecloth, and cut two rectangles from it that were a bit bigger than the pages were. I used the same process to make the cover, but before sewing up the open edge, I put in a tab made from cloth, that I would use to hold the book closed. I sewed velcro to the end of the tab, and sewed the other part of the velcro to where it should close on the book. To keep it from being ugly, I cut the piece that would show on the book into a heart shape.
To assemble the book, I stacked the pages onto the cover and sewed them all together down the center; easy as that.
I filled my empty cloth book with pictures of Eric's family that were added to the book using iron-on transfers. The book included us, his grandparents, his cousin...

Months later, he likes looking through them all, but what most captures his attention, is the pictures of the dogs. I'm not sure he'd be "reading" his book if it wasn't for them!!

3. The baby sling