Handmade Baby Love

I love handmade gifts...even if they are wonky or weird, they're awesome. It's like a big, fat "I love you enough to spend my time and talents on you." (I love store bought gifts too, of course--all gifts are delightful!)

What I love even more is making something that I have wrapped a bit of myself into. The things I make aren't always perfect--more often far from it. But I like knowing that the gifts I find time to make are one-of-a-kind and full of love from top to bottom.

We were excited to receive a new little niece in July (who has the cutest, roundest cheeks you ever saw!), and in addition to the much-more-adorable outfit I sent her, I also made her an imperfect, but one-of-a-kind lovey:

I used a Ty soft animal, cut in half and removed a bit of the stuffing. 

Then I used two piece of minkee, and cut off two opposite corners, rounding the others. 

I put the minkee together, right sides together and sewed the two ends of the poor little elephant to the cut corners, leaving an opening large enough to turn it right-side- out. 

I turned and top stitched the edges, and voila! 

Then, for a little extra personalization, I practiced my (very) new (and wonky) free-sewing skills, stitching her name and birthday to the center of the lovey. 

I hope Baby J loves it in spite of it's imperfections! 

We also had some friends welcome a new baby girl. For Baby L, I used our long-drive to Phoenix and this FAB new baby yarn (seriously, yarn people...this is probably my new favorite yarn--so soft and easy to work with, though it did tend to split just a tad) to create a blankie for her.

I used this pattern, but double the rows to make the stripes thicker. I had just enough yarn left to make her a little hat and a flower embellishment. And even a second hat for baby J!