Ready, Set, Go – Baby Necessities to Sew is here! It’s official!

For the next preview, llet’s take a peek at “Play Date at Grandma’s”! This is a fun section of the book, featuring playthings for baby and a smart and stylish backpack for Grandma. The playthings consist of textural treats made from wovens, knits and ribbons. At left is an example from the book of the “Soft Blankie” – I used a Minkee solid with Blank’s Simply Delicious line which I embellished with ribbon and rick-rack. Simple and quick!

During Spring Quilt Market, I stopped at Shannon Fabric’s booth and fell in love with this bright printed Cuddle line (shown at the right)! I just made up these 3 projects from Play Date with Grandma to show you how cute it is in different fabrics!  I made some changes from the book – for example, since the printed cuddle is so cute, I decided not to use as much quilt fabric (woven) in my projects. Don’t you just love that Jumbo Dot?

I photographed the Ball, Blocks and Blankie on top of the Star Baby Quilt which is part of the “You’re Invited” section of the book. (More on that in another blog post!).

Here is what I learned as I was sewing with Cuddle:

• Use a walking foot, so that your bottom layer does not push out ahead of your top layer!
• Add some zig to your zag! A slight zig zag adds stretch to your seam.
• When adding an applique, interface your cuddle with a light interfacing first then use a stabilizer to add the “oomph” to the back of your Cuddle while stitching.
• I lengthened my normal stitch length to 2.6 mm.
• Use a size 90 Stretch needle.
• Pinning does help as there is some slide with this fabric.
• Smile!

I hope you’ll give my book a try and don’t be afraid to mix fabric types as I did with these baby toys. Your little one will love it!

Happy sewing!  -Kris