Favorite Baby Gifts to Make

I love making baby gifts—they’re fast (usually), they’re cute, they’re great for using up leftovers, did I mention they’re fast? Since friends of mine recently had a baby, I whipped up a few of my favorite baby gifts to make. Here’s a quick round up.

Knitted Baby Gifts to Make

Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket is both super easy and simultaneously challenging. The knitting itself is straightforward garter stitch, with some basic increases and decreases. But the way the pattern is written (at least in the version that I have) is a little challenging to follow. Elizabeth Zimmermann was largely a pioneer of knitting in the analog age. The original pattern was written in a very conversational style that was sent out in letter format. Like in the mail, using stamps and everything. It’s also written at a time when knitting patterns were pretty sparse, so I have to mentally convert the instructions into things that make sense for me. For example, “10 garter ridges” is 20 rows of knitting. How many times have I only knit 10 rows before I remembered that? However many times I’ve knit this jacket.

All of that said, once you “translate” the pattern to whatever style you’re comfortable with, this sweet little baby cardigan comes together in a flash of magic, from an odd-shaped lump to a jacket—surprise! This last one was knit with mystery yarn from my stash, and I just barely didn’t have enough yarn to fully finish the front bands.

There’s also all those blankets and a few that I haven’t finished/started. We don’t talk about those blankets, no no no no. (Yes, I just watched Encanto.)

Baby Gifts to Sew

One of the reasons I wanted to start sewing was to make gifts for my niblings. A couple of my go-to patterns for kiddos are the Wee Lap Tee and Petite Pegs from Patterns For Pirates. Both are free sewing patterns, with detailed instructions that make sewing them a breeze. I’ve been told by people with children that the sizing runs a little bit small but also, children are a wide range of sizes because they’re just tiny versions of people. Pay attention to the schematic more than the “sizing”. My 18 month old nephew is wearing his nearly 4 year old brother’s clothes so once again, size means absolutely nothing.

Anyway, I made this dinos in space set for my friends’ new baby using those two patterns. The fabric came from KnitFabric.com‘s Etsy shop and it’s a cotton-lycra blend and is really nice to wear. Yes, I also sewed myself a tank top out of it.

Other Baby-Related Projects

I have very little chill and way too much optimism when it comes to making things for babies. In addition to these projects, I cross-stitched a piece. Overkill, thy name is Amy. The pattern is Welcome to the World Little One by Emma Congdon of Stitchrovia. The pattern is not showing up in the Etsy store for some reason, but there are plenty of other fantastic options.

As of right now, I don’t have any more immediate plans to make things for babies. But as we all know, that can change very quickly. What are your favorite baby gifts to make?