A Gift Set for a Precious Baby

I have been busy cutting into my stash of organic cotton. Oh happy me !! I'm making Christmas gifts for my niece who is expecting her first child at the beginning of February. First up is the receiving blanket, which I have finished.

It's 27"x35' and has two layers - The top is part of the organic Safari Soiree range by Birch Fabrics. That fluorescent looking red is really a coral colour. It was such a dark day when I took this photo I had to do some serious adjusting, which has distorted the colours somewhat!

The base is also organic. It's brushed cotton, which will be lovely and soft and cosy and warm against a newborn's skin.

We know the baby is going to be a girl, but my niece does't want a pink overload, so I thought these giraffes were perfect. I have a bit of a thing for giraffes anyway, and the heart shaped trees are so cute, I couldn't resist choosing this fabric.

I shall be making some burp cloths to match, and I'm part way through making a bib. The top half of the bib is solid white organic cotton and the bottom will be the giraffe fabric.

I typed the word "precious" into a Word document, printed it off and then traced it onto the fabric using a water erasable pen.

I'm embroidering it with a simple back stitch using a coral pink thread.

If I did this again, I would work the embroidery before I cut out the neck shaping of the bib. I had to be very, very careful not to distort the fabric as I secured it in the embroidery hoop.

I've deliberately cut the strip of fabric for the bottom so that I can make the seam line along the top of the green bunting, and if it works like I want it to, and I don't mess it up (!!), the grey heart tree will be in the centre of the bib. 

That's the plan, anyway.

The embroidery is done, so hopefully this will be finished in the next couple of days. It is my entry for Le Challenge  - a monthly challenge which accepts any kind of handcrafted items. This month's theme is "Precious" and the challenge date is the 15th. The items do have to be finished ones to count though, so I'd better get a wriggle on !!

Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced