My go to embroidered baby gift

So what do you do when you find out that a friend you didn't even know was pregnant just gave birth to twins? I pop out my sewing machine. For several years, my go to baby gift has been a flannel baby blanket with an appliquéd and embroidered motif.

I first saw the idea in Teresa Layman's wonderful book Handmade Baby Gifts. Her motif is a rabbit that looks like a snowman with ears surrounded by swags of flowers. As a rabbit lover, I made many of these, but eventually I branched out to use other motifs.

After appliquéing the motif in one corner, the basic blanket is made by taking two lengths of flannel and sewing them together right sides together. I like to sew them together before trimming the edge in order to ensure the two lengths match up well.

You can have a curved corners or square. Then, turn the blanket right side out and approximately 6" from the edge sew a decorative stitch around the boarder. It is a quick and easy homemade gift.

Here are just a few of the blankets I have made.

This blanket is based on Layman's pattern with a few extra flourishes.

I used a quilt pattern from Grandma's Bunnies by Darcy Ashton on this blanket. If you shrink the pattern, you can apply these motifs to burp cloths as well.

On this blanket I tried my hand at design and machine appliqué, making a sleeping moon and smiling sun.

For a baby shower last month, I appliquéd an elephant onto a blanket, using the backing fabric for inspiration. I made a psychedelic stuffed elephant to go along with it, but forgot to take a picture.

Here are the blankets for the twins made in a weekend. Their parents are avid sailors.

So if you need a quick baby gift, try this. They work up in about 3 hours, depending on how much hand work you do, and are warm and wear well.

Happy stitching!

 

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