Thing Thursday - Baby Presents!!

So within the past few weeks, THREE friends have had little munchkins :-P All little baby boys, and all SUPER adorable. And because I'm fairly impatient... I'm going to show you all what I'm giving each of these munchkins... but in the event that their mommy's read my blog... I'm not telling who's getting what :-P

SO:

A Merry Go Round Blanket (Crocheted) from Red Heart

It's a simple pattern, and really fun. There's so many ways you can change it up with different yarn colors, etc. It's made from Lion Brand Yarn's Baby Soft Sportweight yarn (100% machine washable and dryable - important here people...) and I got all nifty and used "Baby White Pompadour" which is a STRAIGHT yarn, but with one strand being a reflective shiny white. Too bad I learned the hard way that they don't sell it at MY Michaels. Ah well. HOWEVER, Since I don't like gauging, or really following directions, my blanket is not made TO the pattern... but it'll give you the overall idea on HOW to make this blanket. I started this one a LONG time ago... I'm not a very diligent "hooker" :-P

A Stuffed Turtle (from Make It and Love It)

This was made of cotton fabric I had left over from other projects. The red and green were from a gator backpack I never finished (and never had an intended recipient for anyway, so it's all good) and the blue is leftovers from my bean bag chair! All the pattern pieces fit together on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper (and it's free on her blog), so it's PERFECT for scraps you may have lying around. I WANTED to do the shell in Red, Yellow, Green and Blue... but I apparently have no yellow cotton in my house. I even contemplated cutting up something... to no avail though...  It still came out super cute! It doesn't take MUCH stuffing (although Make It and Love It stuffed theirs MUCH more than I did... I like squishy toys :-P) All-in-all... it probably took me maybe 2 hours? Not bad, considering I definitely didn't just "sit down and sew it."
 
A Car Seat Canopy (reversible even!) from Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls: A Mom Blog

(A special thank you to the Thrift Shop for letting me borrow a car-seat off the rack to take this FAB photo.

Yes, I'm aware it's a little blurry... it was time to go home, lol)

I really liked this project. Next time, I may not make it reversible, but solely because it's SO much easier to not have to line up the little tabs on either side and sew them together (aka, I'm lazy). The other side is a solid navy blue. It's made of seer sucker, since it's a summer baby - this way, Mom will be able to keep the sun off munchkin (and dirty fingers, and sneezes and curious strangers), but baby will still stay nice and cool. Having thrown it over my head... it's kinda nice in there! :-P  This one sewed up pretty quickly too - again, about 2 hours for the first go-round!  In fact, this MAY become my "standard 'welcome to the world' gift"... It used 2 yards of fabric, and basically 4 inches of velcro. Bean may get one of these with fleece on the inside and "windbreaker" material on the outside. You could even make it with just ONE yard of fabric if it was fleece (doesn't need to be hemmed) or if you hemmed or bound all the edges somehow (oooh... crochet bind the edge maybe?)

All that's left now is to write these mommies some notes and take a trip to the post office! Which means I better get moving, since it closes in an hour...

Anyone out there been doing any fun projects lately? Post a link in the comments so I can check it out!

-Betsy