When I had my last baby, I was pregnant all through summer! I had her in September, so I was HUGE in the hottest months of the year. When I was planning and preparing for her to get here, I loved the idea of a double gauze swaddle blanket.
Double Gauze is so breathable, stretchy, and cute! I found some cute prints at a local fabric store and I made 3 different blankets. I still love them all!
Now when my friends are having babies, I like to serge the edges of some cute double gauze and give it as a gift. One of my best friends (we meet when we were 9 years old), is having a baby any day now! I wanted to make here a blanket with some suns because that is the theme she wanted for her sweet, summer baby.
The only problem is that I couldn’t find any that had suns.
Luckily, Spoonflower will print your own design on double gauze. I drew a design on my iPad with the Procreate app and uploaded it to the design page on Spoonflower.
Then all you need to do is choose a type of fabric. I picked Organic Sweet Pea Gauze. Then I bought one yard of the print. If you are nervous about how the print will turn out on the fabric, you can order a sample before you order a whole yard. The cost of my custom printed fabric was $20. I feel like that is worth it for an original fabric design.
Because COVID is interrupting fabric suppliers, my fabric took two weeks to get to me. I was so excited for it to finally get to me! When it finally arrived, I wasted no time getting it washed and dried.
After it was dry, I cut it to size. I wanted the blanket to be 36″ by 38″. Since the fabric is 56″ wide, the scrap piece was big enough to make some burp cloths too. Double Gauze can be uneven if you cut it with a rotary blade, so I just use scissors and cut along the fabric line.
My plan was to serge the edges to finish the blanket, so I cut the corners to be round. I used a bowl as a guide to cut around.
One of my favorite things to do with a serged hem is to use a colored thread. I feel like it gives it a fun pop of color. I choose a yellow thread to match the rainbows. My biggest tip for changing the color of the thread on your serger, is to tie the end of your new thread to the old thread, then stitch the thread through until all the threads are new thread.
Then all that is left is to go all the way around the burp cloths and the blanket. To make the burp cloths, I used two layers of fabric to help them be more absorbent and the blanket was only one layer of fabric. If you want a thicker blanket, then I would definitely plan on getting enough fabric to do two layers.
To give it as a gift, I always roll it up and tie it with a ribbon. It is also cute tied with a baby headband that matches the blanket! This one I used some glitter ribbon that I had on hand. Now it’s ready to wrap around a sweet baby! Nothing is better than baby snuggles!
