I once saw these fabulous blankets at a local kids garage sale/small business sale. They were called butterfly blankets. The idea was that it would make swaddling easier. they had a pocket to put baby's legs in so that they couldn't kick it free and then you just wrapped them up. I loved them, but I also thought they looked to bulky for a new born. My newborns love to be wrapped up tight, and I just couldn't see how I would get these blankets tight enough. So I have been thinking a lot these past few nights, cuz I do that when I am pregnant, think for hours on end at night while I lay in bed trying to sleep. So I've been thinking about how I might be able to create the same kind of idea, but more like a receiving blanket.
Yesterday I decided that I had had enough thinking and it was time to start doing(strangely enough I slept quite well last night). I found in my stash some ugly cotton fabric that I had gotten from my aunt years ago when she was cleaning out her fabric stash. I've kept it around for just this kind of thing when I don't want to waste perfectly good fabric that actually cost me money. I started measuring and cutting and more measuring and in the end I came up with this...
and then you wrap up your baby like this...
OK, so I know it works great on a Cabbage patch doll. It wraps up easily and it's not bulky. I know that some baby's are actually about the size of a cabbage patch doll...but not my babies. I planned for this, however I wasn't convinced in the end that I had allowed enough extra room. Also, a cabbage patch doll doesn't kick and squirm, so I can't tell if it will stay wrapped up any better than a regular receiving blanket. This is where the need for a new born comes in, I want to have this tested out before my little one arrives. I'd also like to start selling them in my Etsy shop, but I need to know how they work in the real world. Can you believe that I don't know anybody close by with a somewhat newish baby? My sister-in-law is due in March, but that doesn't help me right now....oh the troubles.
Do they give you receiving blankets like that when you leave the hospital with a newborn? I thought I heard a friend of mine describe a blanket like that when they left the hospital.
ReplyDeleteMay
They don't up here, It would be great if they did!
ReplyDeleteI once had a really awesome blanket that I LOVED. It was shaped like a big X with rounded arms on all 4 sides (does that make sense?) You would put baby on the top, take the bottom one up, and then wrap the last two over.
ReplyDeleteIt worked so well, the boys were quite squirmy but it never came off...anyway, I loved it more than any blanket ever!
But, sorry, I have no baby! :) (well, not sorry here, but sorry I can't help!)
Oh what a great idea! My little one kicks and squirms out of blankets all the time! But then my husband is a much better swaddler than I am... maybe I'm just too scared of squishing them :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope you find a baby soon so I can use the pattern before my little boy gets too old to swaddle!