No Sew Blanket

I like to think I'm crafty. I'm into DIY. Maybe not as much as some, but I like it. Husband may dispute my claim on craftiness considering there are some unfinished yet to be completed projects strewn about the house. But I have finished some stuff too.

This post is about my unintended craft.

I have lots of weaknesses. One of those weaknesses is craft stores. I don't know what happens to me when I walk through those doors but I never leave one without buying something. Sometimes I need it. Sometimes those doors shut behind me and I look in my bag wondering "What am I going to make with that?". I really need a chaperon. On Monday (after our photo shoot with Elizabeth) I stopped at JoAnn Fabric. I went in for floral pins and pipe cleaners. Do you know what I left with? Pipe cleaners, two sheets of scrapbook paper (they have a purpose!)...and stuff to make a blanket. Let me explain because, you know what? When you get done reading this, you're gonna want to make one too.

One of my most used baby gifts is a blanket made by my cousin's wife, Melanie. She made Grant this adorable fleece blanket with a monkey pattern on it (referred to as The Monkey Blanket). To this day it is one of only three blankets he will sleep with. Typically the blanket stays at day care and comes home on Friday's to be washed.

Grant sleeping with The Monkey Blanket (4 months old)

I've noticed in the past few months how much smaller the other two blankets look that Grant has been sleeping with. But when I try bigger ones, he cries until he gets his other blankets. So I made a mental note at some point to check out fleece to possibly make a bigger version of the blanket Melanie made for him.

Flash forward to my trip to JoAnn Fabric. Grant is in the cart and I see a huge section of fleece. I grab a bolt of fleece and say out loud "Oooh what's this?" I hear Grant gasp really hard. I look up and he is pointing at the fabric, mouth hanging open, not breathing. The fleece was monster truck print. It's like they knew I was coming.

So here's what you need:

I laid a sheet down on my living room floor to work on
this blanket so it wouldn't be covered in dog hair
before Grant ever got to use it.

 A pair of really good scissors (Warning: if your scissors kinda suck, you will regret starting this project less than half-way through!)

• Ruler or tape measure
• Two coordinating pieces of any fleece

                   - for a baby or toddler, buy 1 to 1 1/2 yards (in each of the two fabrics)
                   - for a child, buy 1 3/4 yards (in each of the two fabrics)
                   - for a teen or adult, buy 2 yards or more (in each of the two fabrics)

Most of these directions are copied directly from my instructions. Please note that any comments in red are from me and not the instructions :) Also, for Grant's blanket, I used 1 yard of each fabric. So for a baby blanket, I would think 1/2 yard of each would be perfect. But what do I know, this was my first blanket. 

And here is what you do:

1. Cut off the rough selvage edge on both sides. (This is the side that is machine finished, not cut. I only knew what they meant by this because mine said Made exclusively for Joann Fabrics alone one side.) Trim only as much as necessary, usually not more than 2 inches on each side. At this point, make sure that your cut sides are relatively straight. (They don't have to be perfect!) Do this on each piece of fabric.

2. Lay your fleece wrong sides together, with edges matching up (do this as best you can, mine did not lay perfectly together and when I finished you couldn't tell). Often times with fleece it's hard to tell which side is the wrong side and it often doesn't matter which side you use as the front or back.

3. Cut a 4x4" square (or a 5x5" square for longer fringe) - I did 3 1/2" for Grant's - out of each corner (through both layers of fleece) and discard. If you want longer fringe (not recommended for a baby or toddler), make your square bigger. It really does help to cut out your square from each corner before proceeding.

4. Cut all 4" (or 5" - or 3 1/2" like I did) strips into fleece at 1" intervals around all four sides.

You start cutting and you think "Cool, I'm making a blanket!"

You keep cutting and you think "I may never finish this."

Then you're all done cutting and you think "Holy crap, it's only half finished."

Then you tie over hand knots close to the blanket edge by using one strip from the front and one strip from the back to create the finished fringe edge. Repeat around all four sides. Then sit back and pat your crafty self on the back. You just made a blanket.

Tying the knots.

OMG it's done!

 Showing both sides. I love how they look together!

 Notes/Suggestions from the instructions:

• To help make your strips approximately 1" wide (again, it doesn't have to be perfect), you can use a tape measure across the top of your four inch section so that you not only make your cuts about 1" apart but also only four inches deep.
• To make the tying look more even, tie every other one, all the way around the blanket then flip the blanket over to tie the rest. That way neither side is really the front or the back.
• Experiment with the way you tie the knots for different looks. You can make the knot show in either fabric as well as the fringe in either fabric. This one made no sense to me but I figured I'd include it in case it makes sense to any of you craftier people.
• The nature of fleece makes two of the sides stretchy. Don't fear! Just be gentle when tying those sides (the selvage sides) so that your fringe isn't stretched out of shape. the knots do have to be tight to remain tied and keep the blanket together.

Notes/Suggestions from me:

• I totally didn't read far enough in the instructions to get to the above notes or I would have done the flipping thing. I started with the corners (just because it made sense in my head) and worked my way around. Sometimes I skipped around because I thought if I crouched in one spot for too much longer I would, in fact, die like that.
• My blanket is a bit of an awkward shape - long and skinny. That was unintentional but has worked out great because it perfectly fits in his crib, which is where I was planning to use it most anyway.
• Melanie's blanket (very first picture in the post) has a solid "back" which made the fringe stand out more. Because of the fabrics I used, the fringe kind of blends in. So I guess if you want that part to stand out more, don't use two busy fabrics like I did.
• I started this blanket with scissors that I thought were really good. Guess what? I was so wrong. Make sure you have good scissors. Buy a new pair if you have to. You'll be happy you did.
• If you have any questions or something doesn't make sense, let me know. If I don't know the answer to the question, I can find out for you :)

Reading I love trucks and happily enjoying his new blanket made by Mama :)

Retirement

We've recently had to implement some mandatory retirement at our house. It's funny how some things that we couldn't have gotten through the day without became completely impractical almost over night. When Grant started crawling we could no longer contain him in the bouncy seat or swing that we so depended on. And when he started pulling up on everything the baby gym was no longer safe. And so began our pile of retirement toys.


Grant in his bouncy seat on a few days old (!!!) and sleeping
in his baby gym (there he was probably 2 1/2 - 3 months or so?)


This morning I realized we'll be very shortly adding something else to the retirement list. The baby carrier/car seat. I was adamant that I would use the carrier until Grant hit the 22 pound limit. It's so convenient especially with the way my car is set up and perfect if my munchkin fell asleep before we made it to our destination. I just take the whole thing with me! But those days are coming to an end. This is what he used to look like in his car seat:


I think he was around 4 or 5 weeks old when I took this
(He is wearing his newborn size overalls...so cute!)

This morning after Husband got him all strapped in, I pushed back the hood on the carrier and it covered his whole forehead. It almost looked like we had to cut a hole in the top for his head like he's the mini version of Lurch. "Crap" I said. "Looks like I'm going to have to give in to the big boy car seat". I have no doubt that Grant will be more comfortable in a larger seat. But I'm very much dreading having to literally get in the back seat of my car to put him in the car seat. Oh well...as my Mom used to say, such is life. However, I am entertaining suggestions. If anyone would like to offer opinions - negative or positive - about what they use, I'm all ears! This is what I'm leaning towards:

It's a Graco car seat and my initial attraction was that it matches my car. Yup, I said it. Plus, I'm pretty stuck on their stuff and it hasn't let me down yet. The seat is kind of...well...it's huge. But doesn't it look so comfy? I've read some reviews and the the only drawback people seem to have is the size. But they all say their kids seem happy and comfortable in it. So we shall see. I think I'm going to start my Car Seat Quest this weekend.

Baby Stuff Part 2

I've realized that I left some stuff off my list of baby stuff I love. In case anyone reading this happens to need some advice :) And there are some things that I have (or wanted) that I realized I never used or didn't need. So here is a continuation of my earlier post.

More stuff I love:

The Boppy Pillow! As much as I hated breastfeeding, I don't know that I could have done it without my boppy pillow. And now, even though I'm not breastfeeding I can still use it when I'm bottle feeding. It helps keep me and Grant comfortable for feeding time. I opted for the "Boppy Bare Naked" so I could buy a slipcover for it (pictured above) but they make them with prints already on them too. Bonus: you can also use it for "tummy time" and to help baby sit up.

Travel System! The one pictured above is the one we use (Alano Travel System by Graco - the print is called Little Wonders) but really I'd recommend just getting a travel system. I do love ours, though. This one came with a car seat base and the carrier snaps into it. The carrier also just snaps into the stroller (pic 1) which makes doing a lot of things much, much easier. There's a roomy basket on the bottom where we've stowed the diaper bag, shopping bags, coats, etc. There are also cup holders up top for Mommy & Daddy and down on the tray for Grant when he's old enough.

 

This is the Fisher-Price Space Saver High Chair. This one I haven't really been able to use much but I will soon! Grant is going to start on rice cereal in a few weeks and I'm so excited to use the high chair. If you're lucky enough to have a large dining area then you are able to shop for a different type of chair. But we have a tiny kitchen with only a breakfast nook type area for a table (which has a dining room size table in it). This high chair is awesome because it attaches to one of your chairs. No extra space needed! It has 3 positions and even turns into a booster seat for big kids. Bonus: the tray is dishwasher safe.

Stuff I wanted but didn't need/use:



A swaddling blanket. This one is by Swaddle Me. The idea behind it is good. Grant loved to be swaddled. I wanted one because I thought swaddling was going to be hard to do. But they showed me in the hospital and I preferred my receiving blankets to this thing. Plus, I was told not to wrap Grant's arms when I swaddled him and the one time I tried to put him in the swaddler he screamed like I was shoving splinters under his fingernails. Not a fan.



A warmer for wipes. I had this on my registry but I removed it. Like with the swaddle blanket, the idea behind it is good. But when I thought about it how long are they going to stay warm? Evidently babies scream when I cold wet wipe touches their bum. News Flash: new babies scream - the end. I decided not to get it and I don't regret my decision. I'm pretty sure he got used to the cold wipes pretty fast and he doesn't react to them at all now.

That's all for now! Overall, I've been very happy with our baby stuff. Just because something isn't on these lists doesn't mean I don't love it. It just means that I don't remember that I have it. I was very forgetful when I was pregnant and I'm still waiting for my memory to come back!



Baby Stuff

So, I was feeding Grant the other day and I was looking at all of the baby stuff we have. I was clueless when I did our registries but when I think about it I really love a lot of this stuff! I asked a lot of questions to people who had been through this recently so this is stuff I would recommend if someone asked me.

Stuff we registered for:



The piece of advice that I seemed to get from everyone was "Don't get a Diaper Genie, they're awful and they smell!" but that left me with the question Well then, what the hell do I put the diapers in? A friend at work recommended the diaper champ and I LOVE it. We have absolutely loaded this thing with nasty poopy diapers and it has never once stunk up the nursery. Bonus: it takes regular trash bags so you don't have to buy their bags if you don't want to.



The bouncy seat (fisher price) has been my savior on many occasions. At my baby shower a friend told me "If it weren't for the bouncy seat some days I wouldn't have been able to shower." She was one of the women who gave helpful advice so this statement stuck in my head and it's true! Not only did this thing enable me to shower but also to eat and relax for a few minutes between feedings. There is also a matching swing we have that has been great if we just really need Grant to take a nap.

Ah, the cloth diaper. These are like gold around this house. Not to be used as a diaper (sorry planet, disposables are awesome) but as a spit rag, burp cloth, pee catcher, etc. I love them. We always have one in reach.



The Playtex Drop In bottles were recommended to me by a friend at work. They use a pre-sterilized liner that you just stick in the bottle. They are so easy and so far we have no complaints. Bonus: buy the store brand liners for half the price, they are just as good.

Stuff I wish we registered for:

The fisher price Luv U Zoo baby gym. You look at it and think "Um...$60 for that?" I was reluctant but I was willing to try anything to wear Grant out in hopes of him sleeping at night. Not only has he been entertained by it but I'm entertained just watching him. He is fascinated by the bright colors and there is even a little pillow for "tummy time".



A cool mist humidifier (this one by Crane Ultrasonic). We were told by the pediatrician to get one of these when Grant got his first case of the sniffles. I went to Target and they had a bunch of cute characters but I liked the elephant the best.