Pinterest - Stork Bundle

Photo taken by Laura Henry

Pinterest - is awesome.  If you haven't joined or checked out this website yet, you should but beware - it's extremely addicting.  I found this Stork Bundle and decided it was perfect for some of my friends that are due to have babies any day now.

When Bart was born, my mom made these awesome flannel blankets.  They are over-sized and perfect for swaddling.  We all know those store bought blankets are not large enough to swaddle the average baby.  So since I used these blankets day in and day out (p.s. Bart still uses his blankets and he's 4) I realized how much nicer they were than the store bought ones.  I decided right then and there that a blanket or two would be part of my gift to my future pregnant friends and family.

Photo by Laura Henry

Here are my two boys with their blankets (Yes this pic is a few years old - the little one will be 3 this year).  Bart loves his still to this day.  Tad never really took to his blankets instead he preferred a cloth diaper (you know, one of those single ply diapers that most people use as burp rages because they would never hold up as a diaper) as a blanket instead, otherwise known as the "baa-bean".


I'm always looking for a cute way to package gifts and this one screamed out to me.  Cute idea, right?  I thought so too and it looked fairly simple.  And in fact it was really pretty easy to do.  It also doesn't require any additional packaging so it's a green gift!  (Ok, don't count the disposable diapers, ha ha)



Instructions for making the swaddling blanket:

Materials Needed

• 1 1/4 (one and a quarter) yard of flannel fabric (Yes, I'm one of those women that you see feeling all the fabric.  I want the fabric to feel nice.)
• Scissors or rotary cutter & mat
• Round edge - I've used a plastic container (ie. sour cream bowl) or edge of glass cereal bowl
• Fabric marking pen
• Serger - You could also use a regular sewing machine and do a rolled hem but the serger makes a nice finished edge in one pass.
• Coordinating ribbon

Instructions

1. You will need to square up your fabric.  A rotary cutter and mat come in very handy for this if you don't cut very straight with a scissors (let's face it, I don't cut too straight)
2. Curve the corners (If you are not using a serger, you may want to skip this step and just do a rolled hem.)
• Take the square piece of fabric and fold it in half and then in half again
• Take round edge (plastic container),  place on the fabric edge that doesn't contain a fold and mark with your fabric pen
• Take scissors and cut out curve or you can use your rotary cutter if you have a steady hand or a curve template to follow.  If you use scissors - you might want to pin the 4 layers together so that you get the same curve on each edge.
3.  Now you are ready to sew it.  Carefully serge around edges.
4. Poof, you now have the perfect swaddling blanket!

I will try to post some instruction pictures next time I make a blanket.

Constructing the Stork bundle:

Photo by Laura Henry

I took one blanket, folded it into a triangle, placed a travel wipe container in the middle about 1 inch from folded edge, rolled up 15 itty bitty diapers (securing each one with string to keep them rolled up), stacked them in a pyramid fashion and secured with another piece of string, brought up each edge of my blanket and tied it with a piece of scrap fabric (For the tie - I used some of the fabric that was originally cut from the blanket when I squared it up)  Finally step is to tie on the stork cut out.  I found it online as an art clip and used it as my card.  I also added a second blanket folded up under the travel wipe container.

Photo by Laura Henry

The pink with white polka dots one I gave to my good friend Danette.  She is having a girl and due in February.

The brown with pink hearts I gave to my awesome babysitter, Tina.  She is also having a girl and due in February.  Although I don't think she's gonna make it that long.

I also gave each of them the remaining diapers since I bought a large count box.

I can't wait to see who I get to make one for next.