sew fab pattern sale – sweet baby doll with a blankie and carrier

It’s Sew Fab Pattern Sale week!  This is the mother of the pdf pattern bundle sales (19 patterns and one freebie!) and it’s the original.  I had the great chance to make a few things from this bundle.  First up, I made this cute little baby doll complete with a blankie and a carrier. The rest of what I made will be up tomorrow.

Oh, I had so much fun making this sweet little baby doll.  I have a little friend who is about to become a big brother and I’ve been wanting to make him his own baby.  We bought C a doll around the time J was born and even though he mostly body-slammed it (gotta love 2-year-olds!) he did appreciate having a baby to care for of his own. So, I was so excited when I got the chance to use this pattern.

The pattern is from Patchwork Posse and it comes with the doll, a mattress, the carrier and a blanket.  I modified a few things here and there but most prominently I didn’t embroidery the facial features as it calls for in the pattern, I actually drew them with a fabric marker and used blush (real-life makeup type of blush) to make pink cheeks.  I’m not that talented at embroidery so I got freaked out that I was going to ruin the doll if I tried. Turns out, I really like how the drawn face looks.  So sweet and sleepy. Don’t you think?  Plus, it took me all of two minutes! So easy!

The doll, mattress and doll carrier fabric is a Sarah Jane fabric I’ve been hoarding and the geometric print is Denyse Schmidt, I think, from Jo-Ann.  I was aiming for a boy-friendly look without getting super in-your-face about it. I wanted to keep it sweet.  The blankie is made with the same Denyse Schmidt and a super soft red stripe woven fabric I got at a fantastic yard sale.  I also used an amazing 100% organic flannel for parts of the bed carrier. I also opted for some of my scrumptious twill tape in place of using fabric to make the carrier straps.

The pattern also includes the option of adding hair (using yarn) but I like the bald baby idea & I love how all of these elements came together.  I don’t get to make many super sweet things like this so I really enjoyed making this and admiring it after the fact.  The pattern itself provides lots of opportunities to mix and match.  It could be loud and crazy with lots of different fabric choices or gentle and sweet. I find that kind of flexibility means I make something more than once.  I like that. I’m sure I will make more of these for other little people in my world.

It all comes together pretty easily.  The pattern doesn’t always indicate the seam allowance (I used my standard 3/8″) so I’d say it’s aimed at sewists with some experience but it isn’t complicated. In fact, the most annoying part of pdf patterns, which is, of course, the piecing together of the pattern bit by bit (ugh!!) is eliminated for this pattern because everything is either cut in a square or fits on one sheet of paper.  Simple!

As I mentioned, this pattern is part of the Sew Fab Pattern sale (affiliate link), which is a whole bundle of patterns on sale just until May 13th and at a super discount.  It’s a pretty great deal considering each pattern comes to a little over a dollar each.  I was delighted to be given a few of the patterns to sew with, but all the options look amazing.  To top it off, there is a good mix of patterns…a little bit of kid clothing, a few softies, some women’s clothing, fun bags.  It’s like a great starter kit for new sewists but it would expand anyone’s collection.  The best part of it being all pdf patterns is you only print what you are going to use, no waste!

Just as a funny aside, I finished the doll one evening while the boys were sleeping and the next morning I told J, “Hey, I made a baby last night, do you wanna see it?”  He marches after me and when he saw the baby doll he said, “Aw man! That’s not a real one!”  Ha! I guess I should have chosen my words more carefully but seriously, is that how he thinks it works!! Yowzers.

Here’s a little more official information about the sale:
You can purchase the Sew Fab Spring Pattern Bundle for $29.95 this week only! The sale ends on May 13th, and once it’s over, it’s over. You can support independent pattern designers by purchasing the bundle from any of the designers below.

(Designers in order from Top left to right) Greenstyle Creations, Handmade Therapy, MODKID, Everything Your Mama Made, The Scientific Seamstress, Figgy’s Patterns, Two Sweets Patterns, Things for Boys, Patchwork Posse, Betz White, LBG Studio, Mouse House Creations, Gingercake, Heidi & Finn, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Terra’s Treasures, Paisley Roots, Molly Blossom Designs, Sewing Mama RaeAnna. Sale sponsored by The Southern Institute.

To follow the whole tour of bloggers participating in Sew Fab, check out all of these amazing folks: