Do-It-Yourself Baby and Kid Items

[MrsPinecone]

Fitted crib sheets:

Crib Sheets Pattern | Bundles Of Love

How to Make Fitted Sheets

Bibs/Burp Cloths:

Several free bib patterns-- Free Bib Patterns

Hand towel bibs-- Free Directions to Sew a Baby Bib From a Finger or Hand Towel

homemade by jill: burp cloth tutorial

Hats:

Hats & Bib patterns-- Baby & Toddler Hats & Bibs Kwik Sew 2231

Slings:

Pouch sling along the lines of the "New Native" sling promoted by Cindy Crawford, for much less money! Sew a Baby Sling

Maya Wrap-- Baby Sling Sewing Instructions from Maya Wrap

Rings for Maya Wrap: SlingRings.com | Manufacturer of high-quality nylon rings for slings or you can buy 3" rings at a boating supply store.

"Man-tai"-- Making a Mei Tai

No-Sew Baby Wrap ala Moby Wrap Make a Wrap
Instructions for wearing on that site or at: Instructions

A whole bunch of patterns for all kinds of carriers-- Links for Sewing and Improvising Babycarriers

Make A Baby Sling :: Baby Slings | Baby Carriers | Mamma's Milk

Diaper/Tote Bags:

Diaper Bag Pattern | Bundles Of Love

Jan Andrea at home on the web

Collections of Patterns & Ideas:

Jan Andrea-- patterns for everything from baby slings to restaurant high chair covers to grocery cart covers to converting tshirt into nursing shirts-- Jan Andrea at home on the web

This lady has compiled a big list of free patterns for baby stuff of all kinds. Includes knitting, crochet and sewing patterns! http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/ba...#Miscellaneous

[MrsPinecone]

"Taggies"-type baby blanket:

TUTORIAL copy of a taggie blanket

[BzyBee]

Hooded towels are easy to make, and much more absorbant than the ones they sell for babies. These are even good for toddlers and small kids.
I could not find a link to the easy pattern I used...but you don't really need a pattern.

Materials...
1 bathtowel
1 washcloth

Stitch 2 edges of the washcloth together. Find center point on opposite side of washcloth.
Fold the bathtowel in half lengthwise and match center point of towel and center point of washcloth. Pin and stitch. Easy, Easy, Easy!!!


I have seen these done with plain colored towels and then embroidered with the childs name, or embellished with fabrics to coordinate with the childs bathroom. I just used coordinating bathtowel and washcloth.

[MrsPinecone]

I made some DIY quilt clips to hang the quilt on the wall of the nursery! Since the 'real' kind are stupidly expensive for what you get, I had to find a better way.

I used 1" binder clips (also known as bulldog clips) from the office supply store. They are the silver ones with the hole in each handle, not the black ones with silver wires. The hole in the handle is perfect for a nail!

Michael's craft store has GREAT prepainted 3-D wooden cutouts in about 40 different styles for .49 each. I got 2 sets: one set of sun, moon & stars, and the other were lion, turtle & elephant. They had hearts, all kinds of beachy things, palm trees, frogs, dragonflies, cats, dogs, etc. Most of them were similar to popular crib bedding styles!

I used the 2 sided super sticky puffy tape to attach the cutouts to the clips, and voila! Custom quilt clips for less than $3 a set.


Edited to add: Apparently, I am not the only one who thought that they matched a lot of crib ensembles. Search quilt clips on ebay, and some lady (Serendipity's Den) is selling sets of 2 of these for about $9. Same cutouts that I paid .49 each for. She advertises them as "handcrafted". Yeah, gluing a prepainted cutout to a clip is "handcrafted". :rolleyes:

ETA: The original ebay seller no longer has a store, but this one is using the same idea: *Safari QUILT CLIPS/hanger elephant/giraffe wall decor* - eBay (item 400042802458 end time May-10-09 21:22:40 PDT)

[jonjaktez]

When my children were born I had made them burp cloths. I loved how noone else had what we had.

Cloth diapers
Cloth lace
Sewing Ribbon

Sew by machine or hand the ribbon down the side of the middle part of the diapers.

Sew by machine the cloth lace on both ends.

You can also take the crossstich hand towels and crossstich a baby pattern. My younges son's theme was noah's ark and I made 2 of these and they are now hanging in my little bathroom.

[MrsPinecone]

Hair Bows and a Fluffy Tutu:

Free Hair Bow Instructions: hairbow free directions, hair bow business work at home

More Tutu-orials:

Instructions for How to Make a Tutu on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

GOphotography.com Tutu Instructions

How to Make a Tutu | eHow.com (this one requires sewing)

[MrsPinecone]

Pillowcase Dresses for Little Girls:

With step by step pictures:
Freshly Picked: Pillow Case Dress Tutorial
This one is cool because it uses elastic to make a neat gather instead of just ribbon.

everything sewing/how to/pillowcase dress


Sew Along Instructions: Pillowcase dress - AmityMama.com


Pillowcase Dress Instructions - Jen Leheny

[MrsPinecone]

Originally Posted by Shadowchasy ok Im a little confused on the hooded towels....do you have a picture?

I think that you fold the washcloth into a triangle shape, and the point of the triangle meets up with the corner of the towel.

Someone posted this pic on a baby board:
Hooded towel question - The Nest Forums

I also found a couple of sites with directions (two different styles):

Free Directions to Sew an Infant Hooded Bath Towel by Melissa Kadinger

Crafty Chic: Hooded Bath Towels

[MrsPinecone]

Babylegs:

DIY BabyLegs - a photoset on Flickr

Those cute and trendy little baby leg warmers that have been seen on Oprah, etc.

[MrsPinecone]

Wow, those crib sheets are easy.

I wanted Land's End flannel crib sheets for the Pinenut. I did NOT want to pay the $34 each. So I went to Sears and ordered a twin sheet for $14.99. It made 2 crib sheets.