Wasn’t able to fit in all the homemade gifts in that last post. I’ve been pre-washing all the clothing and sheets we were gifted and wow there’s a lot of stuff. This post is solely dedicated to the handmade gifts lovingly made by my good friend Leslie.

First, she made a double sided UCLA fleece blanket. Hubby was ecstatic about the UCLA print. After all, UCLA is near and dear to his heart. Plus, the blanket is SOOOO soft!! (We know it’s intended for the baby, but we just may steal this for ourselves instead haha)

The underside of the blanket:

And a matching baby hat to go with it! Too bad it doesn’t fit Hubby’s head. I would have made him wear it all over the house… haha!

And then a very pretty nursing cover for me. I love the print!!

And lastly, this is not really homemade, but I appreciate it just the same – Hello Kitty socks! For my hospital stay!

Thoughtful, handmade, personal. We love it. Thanks Les!!

Because this blog is on crafterly things, how could I not show of some of the wonderfully handcrafted baby items recently gifted to me?? Because I understand how much time and love it takes to make a handmade item, it means so much more to me. Here are a couple of handmade things I love:

A handspun, handknit, and handsewn Baby Surprise Jacket!

It’s reversible too, with a very cool lining. I absolutely love the colors:

Complete with Cheri’s etsy shop label (so professional and clean looking too! So impressive!):

(Visit her etsy shop here for all things children’s apparel, handspun yarn, and other gifts: Enchanted)

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And then there is a quilt that was put together by my high school friend Karen:

Aren’t the colors gorgeous?! I am so in love with this blanket, I know it will be one of my favorites. I was so touched by all the time and effort she put into this. And it has a yellow fleece underside:

And another delightful label lovingly placed at the edge:

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Lastly, handsewn baby leg warmers by Esther! Aren’t they adorable??

And just for kicks, I always love the gifts given by other fellow moms, who are always thinking practically.

Love the handwritten note on top. Thanks Esther! =)

I’m among the last to jump on this very addicting bandwagon, and I have to agree with everyone else. This is so much fun. I can’t wait to do more. A friend had a baby shower, and I pounced at the chance to do them.

So I purchased freezer paper at my local grocery store and downloaded some clipart/images online. I traced those images onto the freezer paper, and with my x-acto knife, I cut them out. Here are some of them:

So here’s the lowdown on how to put them together:

1. Prewash your fabric. Do not use fabric softener!

2. Set your iron to the setting that corresponds with your fabric of choice. For the onesies, since they were cotton, I had it on the cotton setting.

3. Iron the freezer paper stencils onto your fabric, shiny side down (for me, this took no more than 10 seconds). Don’t make the mistake of ironing them on shiny side UP, or then you risk ruining your iron (and melting the wax/plastic side all over your iron plates).

4. Using foam/stencil brushes, apply fabric paint onto your stencil in an up/down motion (as if you were stabbing the fabric with your brush). You want to be dabbing the paint on, not brushing it side to side. If you brush it side to side, you risk having paint accumulate on the sides of the stencils, and having paint bleed underneath the stencil. It’s best to apply a couple of thin coats of paint, and do them evenly, rather than just gob it all on at once.

5. Wait for the paint to dry, then carefully peel the stencil off the fabric. With this particular fabric paint (I used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint from Joanns), the instructions say to let the paint dry flat for 4 hours. I didn’t wait the entire 4 hours to peel the stencil off – I just waited until it wasn’t completely wet. Probably 5 minutes or so is good enough for peeling off the stencil, then let it dry completely for the remainder of the time.

6. After that, I would recommend sticking them in the dryer on medium/high for 10 minutes (with no fabric softener), to heat-set the paint.

Washing instructions: When you want to wash them, turn them inside out and wash in warm water, tumble low/medium.

Easy huh? Here were some of my samples:

Here are some of the girls working on their onesies at the shower:

Some of their work:

Nice huh? I would post more pictures, but the rest of my pictures ended up dark and/or blurry. (I’m still a newbie with the camera manual controls.) So instead, I’ll leave you with some REALLY GOOD cupcakes we had at the shower from Sibby’s Cupcakery.

(If you couldn’t tell earlier, the shower was ocean-themed.) =)