I’ve had a lot of baby gifts to sew lately. That’s a very fun “problem” to have. The last few gifts have been quilts. So I thought I’d do something a little different this time, and try making a baby block.
At the moment, I need to clean my house and get myself ready to go out and spend time around adults. I’m currently wearing workout clothes, and project stuff is everywhere. So this is going to be short!
I wanted to embroider “A, B, C” on the blocks. But I didn’t want to take the time to print out the letters and trace them onto the fabric using the window-lightbox method. So I came up with a quick trick that worked pretty well for something this simple.
I went ahead and put my fabric square in a small embroidery hoop. Then I typed out the letter that I wanted on my computer (which is a font Matthew made). Then I stuck my embroidery hoop up carefully against the monitor, and traced it with a pen. Easy!
Sewing the three letters was pretty quick. I used a stem stitch, back stitch, and split stitch for variety.
To sew the block together, I put the pieces in a layout like this and sewed them into this shape:
Then, inside out, I folded up the panels that matched each other and sewed those together. You’ll notice I also tucked in different ribbons in each seam, to give the baby something easy to grab on to.
For the final side, I sewed in about an inch from each corner, and left a little over an inch in the middle. After I stuffed it full, I whip stitched it closed by hand. And, I forgot to sew a ribbon in there. Ugh! I did such a nice invisible whipstitch that I am afraid I might rip the fabric trying to take it apart. I may leave it, or I may rip that out and sew ribbon in before the baby shower. We’ll see.
I don’t think that this block is enough of a gift, so I’ll be making some more stuff. Not sure what yet, but I’ll be back to share it here. Now I’m off to clean up!
Love the block! So cute!!!
Thanks!
I’m making similar blocks for but I am spelling the child’s name,1block per letter then I googled animals that start with each letter, then I googled colouring pages for each animal and did find one for each. I’m on vacation soon and am starting them then. I’m making mine in felt just because it’s so much easier and forgiving when doing multiple layers. Hopefully they turnout.
Oh, those sound adorable! You should come back and post a link to your photos when you’re done – I’d love to see them.
These are so well done and so adorable!!!!
Thanks, Vanessa!
What size did you make your squares?
I made my squares 4.25″ on each side. After 1/4 inch seam allowances, on a quilt, they’d end up 4″. I did maybe half inch seam allowances, so my squares ended up a little smaller than 4″ once sewn together.
I think I would make several with the letters of the baby’s name and include a simple quilt for a really great baby gift!! LOVE THEM!!!
I ended up adding the baby’s name to the 3rd solid side. Using those letters all over instead of ABC would be cute!
Oh, and I wanted to give a quilt too, but I ran out of time!
Couple of questions, thinking about giving this as a gift. Sarah, how exactly did you add the baby’s name to the final solid side? Did you center it and write out the full name? Did you put it in a corner of the block? Also, what age do you think its appropriate to give this to. Have some friends with babies that are 10 months -1 year old and wondering if its still ok to give this? Any thoughts?
To add the name to the last side once it was already sewn, I used a technique I learned when I made a doll one time. You’re really supposed to have a long needle for that, but it worked fine without one. I tied in knot in my thread – not huge, but big enough to stay put. Then I stuck it through the other side of the block that I wasn’t going to stitch this on through to my starting point – kind of through a corner since I couldn’t go fully 4″ this way. I gave the knot a wiggle and a pull, until it popped through the fabric and into the block. Then, I just carefully pulled it so it was behind the fabric at my starting point. Does that make sense? Basically, you need a knot back there to start, but you don’t want to see it. So you start on the other side to pull it into the stuffing so that it ends up right where you need it, inside the block.
From there, I just stitched down and up by just catching the fabric, and not going all the way through the block. For the ending knot, I repeated the starting steps, in reverse, so I again hid the knot and the tail inside.
Of course, if you know the baby’s name before you start this project, it’s much easier to just do it all first before it is sewn together! But I was thinking that you could personalize something store bought this way.
As far as placement of the name, it was a short name – Wes – so I was able to write it easily in the center of the block. I need to see if I have any photos I took before I gave it. If I do, I’ll update the post.
For age, I’m thinking about my kids when they were babies. I remember that Taylor played with easily grabbed toys until at least 6 months. If you’re giving a gift to a 10 month – 1 year old, they’re probably old enough to start stacking easy things, but maybe too old to be fascinated by chewing on ribbon tags. For an older child, I think that a set of at least 3 (possibly smaller) blocks would be really nice. They’d be old enough to stack them, and old enough to have their parent point out the letters you sewed on.
I hope that all helps!