Handmade Christmas: For My New Grandbaby

 

This is the last of the Handmade Christmas posts, and honestly these are things that I intended for baby shower gifts and didn't finish in time.  Perfect for Christmas gifts then, right?

 

Photo credit:  ebay, inc.

This is a baby sweater I have made several times, since I was a teenager, although it had been so long I wished my mom had still been around to answer my questions.  My mom made this pattern probably dozens of times, and I always thought its design was just such a sweet gift for a new baby.  I lost the pattern for many years, found it and lost it again, and then bought a new one on ebay.  The new pattern is an authentic vintage (1949) pattern and is falling apart, so I photocopied the pattern to save the booklet.

I guess you could call this a tradition of sorts, although I didn't make it for any of the other grandbabies.  Frankly, I just kind of forgot.  

The original pattern calls for a ribbon or crocheted drawstring at the neck, but I thought today's moms would see that as kind of dangerous, so I improvised a neck binding and binding down the front with a button.  It worked OK, but next time I might try a different approach.

The other gift was a crochet-edged blanket.  I had actually finished a couple of these for her more-or-less on time, but this one didn't make it.  My grandmother made these for every baby in the family, and I have made bunches of these over the years.  I kind of overdid it with the first grandchild, in fact.  I probably made close to 20 of them.  My daughter finally said, "Enough!"  Guess I might have been a bit enthusiastic about this grandma thing.

 These little blankets are so inexpensive and work well as receiving blankets, swaddles, and burp cloths.  Truly a multi-purpose gift.

 

And, these blankets can actually be quite warm, which on this particular day was a very good thing.