A very dear friend of mine had her first baby recently. I thought for months about what I could make for her. My sewing skills are still limited, although I am hoping to improve that soon. She said that she had enough blankets but this beautiful bear fabric seemed destined to be a blanket, so I paired it with a soft light polar fleece and hoped she’d like it (and not look at say, “Uh, what were you thinking? What part of ‘enough blankets to open a blanket shop’ did you not get?”).

The other fabric is rabbits – her wedding cards and thank you notes were themed with rabbits and our last little baby was nicknamed our Baby Rabbit, so I wanted the rabbits for the special meaning. It’s paired with a soft towelling, and it made up as three different sized burp cloths. Before I had my own babies I would have bought cute little tiny clothes and told myself I was being practical by getting a size larger than 000 but now I go with something a bit more practical – burp cloths and some “odds and ends” (aka random items) from the chemist.

If you have a chucky baby, burp cloths need to be kept constantly on hand, so I’ve always figured that they might as well look good since you need them to be out and within easy reach. I made up some bright and colourful ones for my own spewy baby and someone commented “what a shame they’re just going to be thrown up on” but they’ve kept the place looking bright and cheerful and I still use them now for wiping hands and mopping up spills.