Baby Hat Free Crochet Pattern

**Click here to access the Free Baby Hat Crochet Pattern**

I am excited to share another free pattern! It's been long enough, right? It's a free crochet pattern for a baby hat. The crocheted baby hat pattern is a basic and easy design. It is for a 3-6 month old baby. What's great about it is that it can be embellished in so many ways...add a flower, butterfly, initials, owl eyes, or bear ears like I'm planning on adding to this one! 

The free baby hat crochet pattern will work up very quickly for experienced crocheters. It is also a perfect pattern for beginners who might want to crochet more than a square or rectangle and venture on to crocheting in rounds. If you make one, I'd love to know it...and see pictures! :)

**Click here to access the Free Baby Hat Crochet Pattern**

Enjoy!

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Baby Boy Baby Shower

Here is a peek into the baby boy baby shower that my mom and I gave my sister. It was so special for us all to be together to celebrate my sister and her soon-to-be baby boy! The decorations were all shades of blue and boy-ish. I made a cloth diaper cake (tutorial here) that was full of blankets, burp cloths, baby towels and wash cloths.

We used a navy blue sheet for a table cloth and gathered the ends with ribbon and toy cars and trucks. I loved how it looked!

We spent a jet-lagged evening with me teaching my mom, sister, sis-in-law, and niece how to fold muslin roses (tutorial here) for our outdoor centerpieces. I was so out of it that I had to follow my own tutorial to teach them. With everyone's help, we each made a couple and got them done quickly. We stuck chopsticks wrapped with floral tape in the center of the roses to create stems. The floral tape was perfect in its look and also had just enough stick so that the cloth roses didn't slide down the chopsticks. We stuck the chopsticks in foam to hold them in place in our little pots.

I always love hanging onesies...

...so we bought some cute baby boy ones in different shades of blue and hung them in front of the windows to add a little bit of decorations to the living room.

We used the large cloth baby blocks that my mom and I made as centerpieces for the food and drinks tables...ABC on one, XYZ on the other. Which brings us to the delicious food...

My mom made cloth napkins to match the table cloths. We had an assortment of finger appetizers since the shower was at a time between lunch and dinner. Some of my favorites were the cheese platter, marinated olives, and our own version of caprese salad: My sis-in-law took small tomatoes, sliced basil leaves, and a cubes of mozzarella and stuck them on toothpicks. A drizzle of oil and they were ready to eat. (Thank you, Candace!) Then there were the sweets...

We melted white chocolate chips to dip our freshly picked strawberries that we had gathered the day before at Carlsbad Strawberry Company. I had seen these rice krispy treats on Pinterest and had to give them a try. They were so easy and cute with the blue frosting and white sprinkles. Our final sweets were cupcakes (coconut, carrot, chocolate, and vanilla) from Sugar Blossom Bake Shop - yum! They were delicious and we conserved a little bit of time and energy by ordering them and supporting our favorite local bakery. We have a lovely day celebrating a lovely lady! 

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Free Crochet Pattern for a Chevron Baby Blanket

**click here to access the Wavy Chevron Baby Blanket free crochet pattern**

It's a little bit later than I had planned, but I've finally had a chance to put up my free pattern for a  chevron baby blanket. 

It is an easy free crochet pattern and is good for all levels. You can do it in any color combination and it would even look great as solid colored baby blanket.

The finished size is 27" x 30 1/2" (67 x 77cm) but you can also adjust it to be larger or smaller.

If you would like one of these blankets without having to make your own, they are available here in my Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings.

**click here to access** 
**the Wavy Chevron Baby Blanket free crochet pattern**

If you make one of these wavy chevron baby blankets, I'd love any feedback, good or bad. 

Enjoy!

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Chevron Baby Blanket

I made this chevron baby blanket for the same friends from the baby shower that I helped decorate a few weeks ago. They chose the specific colors and wanted a chevron design because that's what the dad-to-be had when he was a child. I love that.

I created an alternating pattern using the four colors: plum, lavender, grey, and blue. The chevron baby blanket is crocheted with two strands of double knit yarn to make it extra cozy.

It was my first time ever crocheting anything with a chevron or ripple or wave pattern and I really enjoyed it...so much so that I'm offering one of these same chevron baby blankets in my Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings. It will be the same colors and same design, but I can always take custom orders if you have other colors that you love. Or, if you'd rather make your own, I have the pattern available here for free!

If you do decide to visit Sunshine Makings and purchase anything, please use this coupon code to receive a 10% discount: SSBLOG

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Fabric Baby Blocks

It's baby shower season in my part of the world... and I'm about to give a shower for my sister!! I'm pretty sure all babies love noisy and squeezable baby blocks, so my mom (Kay from jerryandkay) and I made baby blocks to go with my sister's baby boy themed baby shower.

Our goal is to have as many of the decorations as possible be things that my sister can use for her baby. I loved doing this for my friend's shower and am using some of the same ideas, like the cloth diaper cake and muslin roses. The cake and roses will be slightly different, of course, so stay posted to see them in the next couple of weeks. 

I used this baby blocks tutorial as a guide to how to make fabric baby blocks. The most difficult part was choosing fabric...the baby blocks were a cinch to sew. I appliqued a capital and lower case A,B, and C on the solids sides of each block. My mom's doing X, Y, and Z.

To make the ABC blocks more enjoyable for the baby, I added noisy items in the center of the filling: jingle bells in one, cellophane in another, and marbles secured in easter eggs in the third. 

Shake, shake, shake...my kids loved testing the sound in the ABC blocks...

They sound good enough for preschoolers and good enough for a baby!

The fabric baby blocks also passed the squeezable test.

We are sure that baby will love them!

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Cloth Diaper Cake Tutorial

This has been a week full of baby stuff! How fun...and I don't even have a baby! Today, I'm going to show how I made this gorgeous baby shower diaper cake out of all cloth baby necessities. It is very eco-friendly and any friend who is a mom-to-be would love it as a gift...I know I would have when I was expecting my babies.

 

Here is what you need to make your own eco-friendly cloth diaper cake:

- Muslin Cloths, Baby Bath Towels, Burp Cloths, Baby Wash Cloths, Baby Prefolds (Cloth Diapers)

- Ribbon (I replaced the one in this picture with a prettier ribbon when I made the cake)

- Scissors

- Chopsticks or something similar

- Cake Stand or another base on which to display your cake

- Baby Bibs

Here is how you make a cloth diaper cake:

1. Place baby bibs on cake stand.

2. Fold baby bath towels to the desired width that will end up being the height of the first layer (I folded the baby bath towels in thirds lengthwise). Roll them up. Carefully wrap muslins or prefolds or burp cloths around the outside of the rolled towels. This is the bottom layer of the cake.

3. Tie a decorative ribbon around the rolled bath towels to hold them together. Some people use a rubber band to hold everything together. I used my hands and legs and carefully tied the ribbon. I didn't want an ugly rubber band to show through since my ribbon was transparent.

4. Stick a couple of chopsticks between the gaps in your rolled towels. Be very careful and gentle so that you don't accidentally snag the towels.

5. Roll burp cloths, muslins, prefolds the same way you did the towels, but make the width of the roll slightly smaller. This is the middle layer of the cake. Again, tie a ribbon around the roll to hold it together.

6. Very carefully, place the second layer on the bottom layer so that the chopsticks stick up into the gaps of the rolled cloths. The chopsticks will hold your second layer in place.

7. Roll washcloths or burpcloths, muslins, etc. in a similar way as the other two layers. I overlapped the washcloths in a line on the floor and then rolled them. This helped create a nice, even roll. Tie a ribbon around the roll. This is the top layer. You can end here or continue with a muslin rose on top.

8. Follow my tutorial to make a muslin rose. Then carefully and gently place a chopstick through the rose so that the rose is at the top like a lollipop.

9. Gently stick the chopstick into the center of the top layer until the rose is resting on top.

You now have a gorgeous cake that will make a lovely gift for any mum-to-be.

Besides making a lovely gift, they add a special touch to the decor at a baby shower. Here is mine on the food table among a tasty assortment of snacks and sweets...

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How to Make a Muslin Cloth Rose

If you follow along, you have probably seen the recent post about my homemade cloth diaper cake that was part of my friend's baby shower decor. This is a closer look at one part of the cake: the muslin cloth rose. I'm going to show how you can make your own muslin rose, which is a beautiful addition to a diaper cake. You could also arrange a few of these into a muslin rose bouquet or to top a wrapped gift.

There are only two things you need to make your own muslin cloth rose:

1. Baby Muslin Cloth (like these)

2. Ribbon

I obviously used baby muslins but you could also use any type of thin, soft, flexible fabric if you do not intend for them to be used by a mom-to-be.

1. Lay out the cloth and fold it in approximate thirds.

2-4. Again fold muslin in thirds, creating a long, narrow folded piece.

5-6: Roll from one side until you have about a third of the length remaining unrolled.

7. Pick up the roll and fold top edge down toward you at an angle (diagonal).

8-9. Continue to bring the unrolled length around, holding it in place as you carefully bring it around.

10. Your unrolled length will eventually end up back at the diagonal from number 7.

11. Tuck the amount of remaining length into the space under the folded diagonal. This will hold the rose together.

12. Admire your cloth rose.

Tie a ribbon around the rose to hold it securely in place. 

Here is a look at the muslin rose I used to top the cloth diaper cake...

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Baby Shower Decor

I helped organize a baby shower for a friend last week. We did not want to go overboard with games and decorations, but still wanted it to have a special feel. So, we kept to simple baby shower decorations that included gifts for the mom-to-be to take home!

This one is a oldie but goodie. I love the look of the onesies hanging from a clothesline...I probably should have ironed them. Oh, well. To make it a bit prettier, we used sheer, slightly sparkly ribbon instead of an actual clothesline. 

We used the same ribbon to tie balloons to the "throne" and to hang these adorable wool diaper wraps from the chandelier.

I made the wool wraps from felted charity shop sweaters and Katrina's Sew Quick Soaker Pattern. I forgot to take more pictures of them before hanging them at the party, so this is the best you get to see. Hopefully, I'll be making some more for her soon.

Along with the onesie clothesline and soaker chandelier, we decided to have a "diaper cake." This was a bit tricky because the mom-to-be is going to use cloth nappies (diapers). Instead of using my own brain, I first tried to find an online tutorial for how to make one - impossible! So, I set my laptop aside, and used my own creativity to figure it out. Easy.

I will have a full tutorial on how to make a cloth diaper cake in the next few days in case anyone else out there ever needs a little guidance. In summary, I used baby bath towels, muslins, burp cloths, and lots of waschcloths to make the beautiful cake. So, I guess it isn't technically a diaper cake, but I actually think it is much prettier with the cloth instead of the disposables.

Click here to learn how to fold your own muslin cloth rose. Besides using them to top the cake, you could also use them in a bouquet or to decorate a wrapped gift.

In a few days, I'll put up the tutorial for the cloth diaper cake!

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Baby Hats

Last week, I showed a few baby blankets that I made recently. Today, I'm showing my favorite baby hats. You can find them all in my and my mom's Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings.

With the exception of the pink and grey hat, these are all crocheted with the softest bamboo yarn. 

It is so silky smooth it feels like it might melt into my fingers. I absolutely love it for baby items because babies should have the softest of everything on their delicate skin. 

 The bamboo also has a slight silky shine to it as you can see in this white, blue, and green baby hat. 

I hope you like these and stop by Sunshine Makings for a closer look! 

If you decide to buy one or anything else you might like in my Etsy shop, please use the following code for a 10% discount: SSBLOG

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