Baby Crafts

I still haven't done much to get ready for little man to come.  

Hubs did bring the newborn tub of clothes and newborn tub of diapers down from the attic.  He also brought down a tub of receiving blankets.  

I have not done anything with the tub of clothes or diapers.  I was about to wash all of them, but decided that wouldn't be the smartest idea.  I have no where to put the stuff.  We still don't have a dresser in little mans room and honestly I don't really want to hang clothes up in his room yet either.  There's still too much to do in and around that room (going in the attic...which is in that room) that I think the clothes will get dusty.  

I did however open the tub of receiving blankets.   WOW do I have A LOT of receiving blankets.  I even have packages that haven't been opened.  

I decided that I was going to take all of our china and crystal out of my dining room hutch and make it a 'baby' area.  My hutch doors are on the bottom of the piece and the boys have been opening them and taking the china mugs out to 'drink' from.  They've broken a crystal flute.  If I'm in the room and tell them to close the door they do (normally right away), but if I'm not in there they have a blast playing with mommy's pretties.  I wrapped up all of the glass and boxed it.  Hubs just needs to walk it up to our overflowing attic.

Since we have two floors I know that I want an area downstairs that has some baby products.  So I took a dozen or so of the receiving blankets and put them on my hutch shelf.  I will also be putting some diapers (for all 3 boys), wipes, etc.

Taking out the dozen blankets did not even put a dent in the tub.  I knew I wanted to have some upstairs in his room, so I took out probably another dozen or so.  I still had A LOT left.

I searched online for different ways on how to repurpose receiving blankets and there were so many different ideas; prefold diapers, burp cloths, wash cloths, totes, lovey blankets, quilts, the list goes on.  

I thought about making some lovies out of the blankets but I didn't think my boys would like them as much as the soft fluffy ones they have.  

Anyway I decided to go with some burp cloths and wash cloths.  I only have 6 burp cloths.  Three of them are super skinny and we never liked them when we used them with the boys.   The other 3 are really thick and great (but kinda ugly).  Of course they will still be used... but I could make cuter ones right.  

The first thing I did was tape two pieces of computer paper together and draw a template.  I'm sure I could have found a tutorial with a pattern online but it was easy enough for me to figure all of this out on my own.  

I chose some of the receiving blankets that were smaller and some that were 'hand-me downs'.  I was able to cut 4 pieces (2 burp cloths) from each receiving blanket.  I am not a very patient person (as I remind all of you often) so with each cut I got sloppier and sloppier.  By the time I was done my pattern was completely misshaped (I used a rotary cutter and just cut around the paper).  

I sewed two pieces together (wrong sides out) leaving a 4-5 inch gap from where I started to where I ended so I could turn them right side out.

After turning them right side out I ironed them and ironed under the 4-5 inches that weren't sewn together to make it easier to close up.

I then went around the outside of each burp cloth with a fun color thread.  Most of them I just did a normal stitch but on a few I did the zig-zag stitch. Non of them are perfect.  Honestly they are all a bit wonky.. but what's it matter it's just going to be used to clean up spit right.

With the left over pieces of blanket I made little washcloths.  Well, some were little, some were big, some were squares, some rectangles.  I figured I could ALWAYS use face rags and it doesn't matter the size.  I can use the smaller ones on little man when he starts to eat and the bigger ones on my big men after they are done eating.

I'm so glad I decided to do this with the left over blanket and not just throw it in my scrap box.  I was just telling Hubs I need to buy new washcloths for after meals because the ones we have are stinky and I just can't get the smell out.  I was going to try to bleach them and then boil them (but I'm not a fan of bleach... especially on my babes).

Friends, I can't imagine I need 12 burp cloths for one baby.  I barely used them for M & G (they never spit up).  I figure I should have a few on hand incase this babe is a spitter, but I will most likely be passing these out to a few ladies I know that are expecting boys.  Haha and two of those ladies that I can think of have the same name... too funny :)