Being Craftsy

I want to show you my most recent (finished!) projects.  The first took a matter of two hours one evening, but has become super handy.

Ladybug is still in a crib (I know, bad mom, right?), which means Sunflower sleeps in the playpen.  But those playpen mattresses are hard.  It wouldn't be bad if she only slept in it once in a while, but she sleeps in it all.the.time. and I felt a little sorry for her.  I made a slide over sheet for it sometime ago, but it didn't provide much padding.  So I thought, and thought, and this is what I came up with.

I have many cozy baby blankets lying around, and I thought, why buy something when I could use what I have?  So, I picked two of the softer ones that I thought would be easiest to work with and lay them on top of the other.  That would be enough padding, but the second blanket was much smaller than the other, and if I left it at that, her head would inevitably always end up where the second blanket wasn't, you know?  So I found one of the smaller receiving blankets, folded it on itself, and it fit beautifully.

Stitching all these materials together wasn't easy, and the pink blanket especially was not easy to work with.  So it didn't turn out perfectly, but no one is going to see the inside (except, I guess for all of you :), and it provides the padding I wanted it to.

I wanted the blanket/pad to slide over the mattress just like the other one did, and so for the back part I used yet another baby blanket I had lying around.  I stitched it all around the top layer, leaving one side open.

Here you can see all three layers, top, padding, and bottom.

It fit just wonderfully, and is so cozy, I wish I could sleep in there.  I might eventually add snaps or Velcro or something to the top to keep it tucked just right, but it works for now.

Sunflower is especially thrilled and has been sleeping like a...baby.  :)

On to the next projects, my dear mother has kindly sent me pictures of the towels I embroidered for her for Christmas.  (Thanks Mom!)  I followed a pattern, so the idea wasn't all mine, but it was my first venture into the embroidering world.  So fun!