Baby Clothes Memory Quilt and PJ’s for Ami

Oh, the memories!  This was the most fun sewing I’ve had in some time.  Each piece of Ami’s baby quilt is full of joy!  From her Born at Home Onesie (my little HBAC baby!!!) to my own baby dresses this baby quilt reminds me of my sweet little girl’s babyhood!  Plus I had just enough yardage to make Ami matching PJ pants and a headband!  So adorable!

I’ve been saving up my children’s baby clothes for ages and finally came up with a plan on how to transform them into individual baby quilts for my kiddos.  Now,  I am not a quilter.  I love sewing clothing and decor but as beautiful as quilting is I’ve never really been interested in making my own.  So I approached these quilts as a home sewing project.

I’m still working on Nigel’s quilt.  His is going a lot quicker as his baby clothes are simpler tees and onesie’s.    I wanted to be surprised when my kiddos were born so I hadn’t found out their gender prior to birth.  Nigel’s baby clothes were a bit more gender neutral for that reason.  After Ami was born my mom was super excited to purchase girl clothes so Ami has some beautiful frilly pieces too.  I started sewing clothing after Ami was born so she has some me made dresses in this quilt too!

I cut all the baby clothes down into approx. 5.5″ squares to start.  I tried to keep as many collars and footsie’s as possible by arranging and pre-basting my squares.  Then everything was divided into equal sets and sewn together on my serger.  Easy and quick!  I made all my rows the same number of blocks and then serged my rows together until I got the size I wanted.  I used a beautiful striped organic cotton interlock to back each quilt from Organic Cottons Plus.  {affiliate link}  Ami picked the pink colorway and Nigel chose the grey.  I ordered 2yd for each blanket.   Both are super soft with just a bit of stretch.

I went with a lightweight interlock (above) since we’re in Florida.  I wanted nice light, but soft, blankets.  I knew batting would just make the quilts a bit too heavy and warm for our climate.  Plus this really cut down my sewing time!  I pinned the back in place and then worked row my row using decorative stitching on my sewing machine to quilt the piece.  I kept the end of the quilt rolled and as I worked pinned and stretched my lining to keep everything flat and tidy.  For a first quilt I’m impressed with the results.

For Ami’s PJ’s I used my Flora Swim shorts- my Free Pattern– as my base, lengthened to pants and added an enclosed waistband with elastic. I have a selection of my kids pant and top blocks hanging in my closet, along with my slopers, which makes it much quicker to sew for them when they want something.  I did a wide folded hem so these can be lengthened as she grows.  I think Ami will be quite tall (her great-grandma is 6 foot- I’m the shortest by a lot at 5’7″ in our family) so I need Ami’s clothes to be adjustable. The headband is just a wide serged tube in two pieces with the back folded in and sewn narrower.

I love how this quilt brings back so many childhood memories of my little girl!  Each block tells a story.  Plus I left lots of little pockets and buttons for some hide and seek play. Happy Sewing!