fabric gift set

Designer: Lisa Truesdell

While I love to buy itty clothes for the new babies in my life, there is nothing like creating a special handmade gift to welcome a little one into the world.  This sweet gift set can be put together in an afternoon and will be treasured for years to come by the family.  I used my favorite Fiskars tools – the Comfort Grip Rotary Cutter and Pinking Shears to bring these projects together.

Heidi Grace’s new fabrics use designs and colors from her beautiful paper lines, and I have to admit that I had a hard time choosing which ones to use!!    My cousin recently had a little boy, so I finally settled on this brown floral and masculine stripe.  These may not be traditionally “baby” fabrics, but I think they work beautifully for this project.

I started by making a blanket backed with a yellow minky dot fabric – I love how soft and snuggly this stuff is!  I used my rotary cutter and clear ruler to cut the yellow fabric to 36inx .  I also cut both the stripe and floral fabrics to 36inx34in wide.

 I decided on a simple striped design for the face of the blanket – the Comfort Grip rotary cutter made it easy to cut strips of varying widths from both pieces of fabric.  I machine stitched my strips together and then pressed the seams flat with an iron.  I also added a little zigag stitching on the striped fabric.

I then laid the panel of fabric that I had just created on top of the yellow fabric, right sides facing in.  I machine stitched around the edges, leaving a small gap so that I could turn it right side out.  Once I had flipped the blanket, I pressed the edges with an iron and hand stitched the gap closed.  I completed the blanket by stitching around all four edges so that the blanket would stay flat without shifting once it was washed.

New babies mean lots of pictures, so the next item that I made was a fabric covered photo album.  I started with a cheap 5x7in album from my local craft store.  I took it apart and covered it with fabric using spray adhesive.  I used my Fiskars Pinking Shears to edge both sides of a strip of striped fabric and layered it to the front of the album along with some yellow grosgrain ribbon and yellow thread.

One of the added bonuses of Heidi Grace’s fabric is that her embellishments and papers coordinate so well with them! I backed a clear sticker with patterned paper and added a chipboard frame and hearts to finish my album.  Simple, yet perfect.  Be sure to use a strong liquid adhesive to keep the embellishments in place.

Inside the album, I used Heidi Grace’s Daydream Believer patterned papers and embellishments to make a quick page that the new parents can add a photo to. I edged my photo mat with pinking decorative scissors to match the pinking detail on the fabric on the cover.  I left the rest of the album blank so that the parents can just slip prints in as they take them.

The last  item that I made is a memory box – a perfect place to keep hospital bracelets, going home outfits, and all the precious little bits and pieces that the new parents will want to keep.  I started with a kraft photo box.  I used my rotary cutter to cut the fabric slightly larger than the lid and adhered it using spray adhesive.

To create finished corners, I cut the fabric as shown in the photo above, then finished wrapping the box.  The finishing details on the box are very similar to the photo album – a strip of fabric trimmed with pinking sheers, yellow ribbon and thread, and some coordinating chipboard hearts to finish it off.

While I’ve created a gift set for a new baby, this idea would be easy to adapt to other occasions.  You could replace the blanket with a set of coasters or placemats to give as a housewarming or wedding gift,  or create a larger blanket and give it as a gift to a new graduate. I hope you’re inspired to create a gift set of your own!

By Lisa Truesdell