Baby's First Straight Jacket, aka "Bunting"

A friend of mine just had a baby boy yesterday (YAY!) and I made the little tyke a snuggy! Or more accurately, a straight jacket (that's what it looks like, okay). Despite having several cousins and friends popping out kids the last few years, this is the first time I felt inspired to actually make something for a little sprog. I don't know why I held off so long. This was nearly instant gratification, since baby things take approximately an hour to put together.

I used Simplicity 2165 view D, what they call a "bunting", my Mom calls a swaddling (or something), and I call a baby straight jacket. I was originally going to make the changing mat, but cripes I couldn't figure out what they heck they were talking about in the instructions. Straight jacket it is.

I decided to use soft flannel, and picked out a cute mint-green and duckies print for the outside and solid brown for the inside. Man, there is a major deficit of boy-themed prints out there. Most of it was really girly, even the blue stuff. And I'm really not pleased with the quality of this fabric. It's already piling after one wash, and has a loose weave. Really shoddy Fabricland, I'm unimpressed.

Anyways, it was super easy to put together, right up until the hook and loop tape (which I learned is actually the generic form of Velcro - like what Kleenex is to tissues). The diagrams seem to be wrong of where to place them. It took a bit of thought, superimposing the tissue paper, and folding the wings in, but I figured it out. You can see the final placement below.

Doesn't the mint print and the brown look nice together? I was craving mint chocolate the entire time I made this.

Anyways, I zigzagged the hook and loop tape on using mint thread, which looked sharp against the brown. I even trimmed the tape with wee scissors, since the edges are sharp and plasticy and I was afraid of the baby getting hurt.

And then I embroidered crossed hockey sticks at the bottom corner of the straight jacket, since his parents are rabid hockey fans. Just a little nod to them. I love the idea of being able to add that little personal touch!

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As I mentioned in my last post, I'm moving to the Yukon. And as I didn't mention in my last post, I'm leaving on (or around) June 12th. MEEP! Unfortunately that means that this project will be my last sewing project before I leave, since I really need to start packing. But the good news is that I bought a car this week, and will be driving up. I have drawn up the following equation to show you the value in this:

Road trip x able to bring all(my happy stuff + sewing stuff) = YAY!

Red hot tamales!

Let's not talk about the fact that it's a 3700 km trip. And that I'm a prairie girl through and through, and have never driven through the mountains before. DOUBLE MEEP!