I recently made our baby boy his first handmade anything - a baby quilt. It was a mix of odd and sweet feelings to make our little guy something. Even though I am well aware that I am pregnant 24 hours a day, it still seems a little weird to think that I will have a son in a few short months.
All this to say, I wanted him to have his own quilt. After scouring the internet for the perfect combination of neutral grays and blacks and pinning down a certain feel for our yet to be tackled nursery, I am really happy with how it came out. It feels a lot like me and how the rest of our house feels but it most definitely took some time and thought to get there.
I have decided that having a boy is going to be a fun creative challenge. Sure there is not as much cute boy stuff out there as there are for girls, but I am finding that it is forcing me to be creative and come up with my own ideas of the style I desire for our little boy.
So after two hours of looking at fabric at Jo-anns, I finally settled on my color combo. It literally took me that long to mix and match my fabrics to give it the right palette I desired. This did not just come naturally. Back and forth I went with inspiration photos I had pinned which helped me make a final decision.
I am a pretty lazy sewer so I didn't really have a plan for size. I bought at least a half a yard of each fabric knowing I wanted to to do strips of fabric of different sizes. After playing around with the fabric at home I decided upon a pattern.
I pre-washed my fabric like a good girl (not something I have always done in the past). And I had read that washing your fabric with a little vinegar helps keep the colors bright - so I went ahead and added some.
I tried to take pictures as I went to show a general tutorial of how it was made. But in all honesty, I just sort of winged it. If I had to measure, cut, and be perfect about it, I would probably never sew again.
Ironing...I finally bought a stand up ironing board because pregnant lady trying to iron on the ground is not so fun.
See, I don't even know why I took this photo below. Maybe to show that I at least took the time to make sure patterns lined up? I don't know!
To decide on the width of the quilt, I measured all my fabrics to the shortest fabric. So here I am cutting....
Then pinning one section at a time and sewing.
And cutting as I go.
Ironing seams down each time I sew two sections together.
All the top sections sewn together, imperfectly cut!
For the back I wanted one piece of fabric. I based the size off of how long my top quilt was (it's about 2 yards). I found this Nate Berkus home decor fabric that I immediately fell in love with. The lady at the cutting counter advised that I didn't go with it because it wouldn't be soft enough for baby and it was dry clean only. I took a risk and washed it and it looks fine. The lady obviously did not know that softness and style are equally important for baby Urke. So I just went with it and I am happy I did!
I sewed together the top, bottom, and quilt batting. I used the top as my guide and sewed a line down both sides of each strip of fabric resulting in two tight lines on the back (as seen below).
A close up of the lines on each side of the fabric strips.
I then used a gold quilt binding (also from Joann's) to finish the edges. Gone are the days of making my own binding. This was much quicker. Though I will admit I didn't do a perfect job and and had to sew down the binding on each side so the edges weren't sticking out at all. It looks just fine though.
I really love navy but am learning I like the style look of the black and greys together. Having a little navy on the back feeds my need for blue. As I plan the nursery I am really trying to stick with grey (for like bedding) and can use navy as an accent (pillows, art, etc). Having an inspiration board is really helping me stay focused on the look I want.
And now a million photos of my proudly made quilt!
See...not perfect. And you can see how I sewed one line on each side (two lines) to keep the binding down.
And here's a full view of the quilt. Non-pregnant Ashley would have set up the tripod. But I am lucky I even finished the quilt let alone am blogging about it! Such low energy these days!
Related Posts:
My First Quilt
Scrap Fabric Baby Quilt
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