Baby Love

This post was inspired by my dear friend Tracey's "What I'm Working on Wednesday," launched today. Go on over to cute2carry.com/blog and join in on the fun!

Most of my friends know that I sew, so they'll often come to me with a picture, an idea, a website, and say "can you do something like this?" I love it! Some of these requests have turned into great ideas. And I like the challenge of trying to come up with my own way of making something or creating an entirely new design.

My friend Melanie recently approached me and asked if I had anything in stock for a baby gift. I didn't have anything "ready made," but I do have some "go-to" ideas I like to use for baby gifts.

One thing I like to give is hooded towels. [Check out my hooded towel tutorial here]

Another gift that always goes over well with new moms is a nursing cover. Melanie found out that the mother-to-be is going to be nursing, so we decided to go with that.

I've made a few nursing covers for friends, taking ideas from different tutorials I dug up and changing or adding things as needed. I like the idea of a reversible cover (a woman has just gotta have options), so the first thing I had to do was choose two coordinating fabrics. The directions I got from Melanie were as follows:

"She's having a girl"

"Nothing too girly"

"She's kind of contemporary/liberal"

That's it.

Well, I came up with two fabrics from Heidi Grace's "Reagan's Closet" collection.

The nursing cover measures about 24" by 36" with a curved neckline made of 18" of boning for "peeking in" on the little one.

I added a convenient pocket to both sides for storing nursing pads or even a small wash cloth while nursing. The neck strap is adjustable with "D" rings, and the straps are sewn into the seam of the cover.

Melanie also asked me if I could come up with some kind of coordinating diaper/wipes holder. So I did what I usually do...scoured the Internet and stores for inspiration. As I looked around at some of the different options I thought that's great, but where's the changing pad? So I decided to make something that holds the wipes, a few diapers, and a changing pad all in one convenient location...kind of a portable "changing station." There are tons of ideas out there for these types of things. Again, I took in all the different versions and just put things together in a way that worked for me.

I used the same main fabric that I used for the nursing cover, but then I chose a super soft white Minky fabric for the inside. I wanted something very cuddly for Baby to lie on. I also sandwiched a fusible fleece layer between the two fabrics to give it a little extra "cushiness."





When folded, the "changing station" measures about 13" x 9" with a thickness of about 1 1/2", and is held together by a tab with a velcro closure.




Unfolded, the changing pad is 13" wide and a generous 26" long.



The pocket at the end of the changing pad is 7" deep and can hold a portable wipes container and 2-3 diapers (I didn't have any diapers to put in the picture...no more babies in our house!).











I think it will be the perfect addition to any diaper bag. I hope the mommy-to-be enjoys this gift as much as I enjoyed making it!