In the last few months, most of my crafting has been for our forthcoming daughter, hoping to have her surrounded by handmade things when she arrives. Since she’s a Rainbow Baby, I’ve included a lot of rainbows and sunshine themed things. Throughout all of this my husband has been cheerfully tackling setting up her room, painting, building furniture, etc. Sometimes I even catch him sitting alone in the nursery, just thinking about her being here.
While he has been content to let me pick things, I wanted to include some Jim things too. He’s a big Dungeons & Dragons player, so for Valentine’s Day I bought him the baby books the ABC’s of D&D and the 1, 2, 3’s of D&D for him to read to her. And while searching for a fun, geeky Lovey for her, I bumped into some on Etsy that had beautiful fabrics from Spoonflower. They were each around $30, which was totally reasonable for a handmade item, but of course like all crafters I thought, ‘I can do that!’. So I went searching for some fabrics, and found this amazing Rainbow Dragon print, from an artist in Dublin. For the same $30, I could get a whole yard of it printed on ultrasoft minky, and make her not 1, but a bunch of Loveys!
I’ve heard way too many horror stories from parents who lost their kiddos favorite blanket, or who were frantic to soothe a crying baby when their blanet was in the wash, so I kinda went nuts… and made 4. Can you say ‘backups’? The minky came 54" x 1 yard, so I was able to cut 4 at 18" each, and once stitched up they come to about 17". I picked up a simple purple minky dot fabric from Joann’s for the backs, and they have lots of coordinating satin ribbons down each side for the little one to grab onto and play with, including a fun rainbow ribbon.
Now I’m trying to decide if I’m going to break down and buy the same artist’s cut & sew Dragon Pillow from Spoonflower too… Any bets on how long it will take me to cave in?
Babies love taggies! So clever to make multiples, that will be such a bonus come laundry day.
Also, a group of dragons can be called such interesting names…
Love these, the colors are so cheerful and well, what’s not to love about dragons!?
Another tip: If they do become the be all and end all of comforts switch them out frequently and wash them all the same number of times to make sure none of them can be identified as the One True Love.
5 days. It took 5 days. And honestly it would have taken less, but I contacted the Spoonflower artist to ask her if she knew how big her 2 pillow sizes (fat quarter & full yard) sewed up when finished. I shared a link to this project and mentioned that I’d love to sew a family of the dragons, and just wondered if she had any plans to make the pillow design in other colors, because her dragon fabric (like the one I used above) already comes in so many beautiful colors beyond the rainbow versions.
She said she liked the idea of alternate colors, so she said she’d add more colors to her shop in a couple days. And just 5 days later, not only can you get other colors, but she also altered the 1-yard design, so it would hold 3 cut-and-sew dragon pillows in 3 sizes to be a little family! She put it out in new colorways, some with each of the family member the same, and some with each a different coordinating color. There’s a (listed biggest to smallest dragon) Teal-blue-purple, Purple-violet-pink, Blue-Teal-Green, all 3 purple, all 3 blue, all 3 green, and all 3 a smokey grey. I can’t say enough nice things about this designer!
I ended up ordered 2 sets of the pillows in 2 different colorways, so I can mix and match between dragon family member colors. I can’t wait to sew these up! Oh, and not to be an instigator, but @Edel, she also has flamingo cut and sew plushies in a few sizes. Just sayin’.
So sweet! She will be here soon enough! I have never lost a lovie BUT having back ups for washing is a good thing. We have baby - baby is a bear my daughter received at birth and she is now 8. In 8 years baby has had one bath! We have had discussions of baby getting washed and I was told “no she smells bad but I kind of like it” I cannot wash baby the fresh scent would be a dead give away!!!
They are so pretty!
(When I was a new mom we used to cut out all of the washing labels out of baby clothes and cloths, so they didn’t get their little fingers stuck in them and cut of their blood supply. Times have changed…)