What was the best handmade thing you had for your baby?

[GreyDuck]

I'm expecting my first baby at the end of the summer and am getting quite excited. I'd love to make some things for the baby and am looking for inspiration. I enjoy planning and shopping almost as much as making, so am trying not to get too carried away.
What did you make / receive for your babies that you actually liked and used? Was there anything that was a total flop?
Thank you for any suggestions

Not sure if this will be of any use to you or even the type of thing you mean. But I love the handmade knitted cardigans. My mum got one in white for the baby to wear going home (we didn't want to know the sex, and I'd only ever dress a newborn in white to come home from hospital anyway). I loved it.
My mother in law got 2 more when the baby was a bit older. I loved them.

My friend weaved her own moses basket while pregnant - it's lovely.

A friend of my Mum knitted me a lovely baby blanket. It wasn't too big a fitted really nicely in the buggy without dragging on the floor or getting caught in the wheels. It was also easy to use in the car seat. I used it for both DC.

I also knitted lots of little cardigans which where really useful.

Hats - could never find and hats in shops that actually fit, so little crocheted beanies were brilliant

Baby blanket - I knitted one that was the right size for the pram and cot, then have gradually knitted other sections and sewn them on. The blanket is now big enough to be on the bed, so is still in use.

In retrospect, a quilt or patchwork might have been better than knitting as DS1 has pulled some of the knitted stitches out and it looks a bit shabby

My mum crocheted a really big blanket which has been brilliant for me for breast feeding in public.

I saved up all my favourite items of their clothing and made them a big (almost single bed sized) patchwork blanket each. Never done anything like it before so I'm quite proud of myself!

I had lots of hand knitted/crocheted cardigans, hats, and blankets for mine, which I love(d). I also made each of mine a mobile - sewed felt shapes and strung them on to an embroidery hoop.

As above blankets, hats and cardigans, both knitted and crocheted....

Additionally l was gifted a beautiful intricate knitted shawl and used this for coming home, wrapping baby in after being stripped for MW/HV checks and also to put him to sleep in (wrapped but not fully swaddled as he liked his arms free) until he was big enough for a sleeping bag.... I loved it.

Blanket

A blanket, with letters of the alphabet and patchwork designs sewed on it to represent the letters - A with an apple, C with a clock face etc. It must have taken hours. DS got to occasionally sit on it but it got designated a keepsake and lives in the drawer with the drawings DS brought home from nursery, my first mothers' day card etc.

If you are going to knit stuff just make sure you use washable yarn. It's too much of a faff with a small baby to worry about complicated washing settings.

decent cot sized blanket, it is lovely to have a special one.

or a patchwork blanket, you could also do a patchwork wall hanging, eg alphabet.

For the nursery, bunting with their name on it is cute for the bedroom.

hats - well I prefer the cotton ones, not knitted.

one or two cardies are nice, but I found knitted ones were a pain if their fingers got caught in lacey knitting, and knitted stuff didn't always feel very soft against their skin.

I made my own sleeping bags, mainly because we lived overseas in a hot country, so I made a sumemr one that was very light weight

MIL has made us several lovely handmade things, including a cot mobile with a soft moon, clouds and stars, and a patchwork blanket which is fab for tummy time on the floor.

SeeKnievelHitThe17thBus - hang it on the wall!

I loved all the knitted things. Both dm and mil knit. One did blankets and one did cardigans but I got other knitted things from other people too. One of my dm's friends is a mad cat lady and knitted Puss in Boots and wrapped it up with a copy of the book. That was a lovely gift.

If you want to make something yourself in the future, I kept all the vests and sleepsuits that weren't good enough to sell on and I made patchwork teddy bears out of them to give to my dc on their first birthday.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm not sure I'm ready to attempt a moses basket, but I think some knitted cardigans and a blanket should be manageable. I'm off to Pinterest now for design ideas :-)

Mrsnec what a lovely idea. I'm going to steal that

My aunt knitted a little blanket for ds1, from wool from her own sheep, that she had spun herself. I’ve still got it (ds1 will be 25 this year).

A blanket. It was a gift from a colleague, it had been knitted by her MIL for her kids when they were babies. It’s lovely and we use it everyday.

Light wool cardigan. Blanket.

Woolly socks have always been handy for us as we travel to cold climates often but rarely need them in UK.

I hand sewed a quilt for my baby before he was born. It still gets used now he’s 2. I’m hoping to knit a blanket and sew a sleep suit and hats for the next one.

Thanks Smurf, I stole the idea from someone on fb. There's loads of stuff on pintrest. I found a free pattern online although it was ages ago so I'd struggle to find it again but I had to do it by hand and I wish I'd made them smaller so reduce the size of the pattern on a photocopier/ printer if you can.

I wanted to crochet more blankets but I just couldn't get the hang of it. The ones my mum made have washed brilliantly and there are lots of babies in her family. She uses an acrylic chenille wool called flutterby by James c brett. I think its made from recycled materials too. Just wanted to reccomend that to anyone who was worried about washing wool. Although I would have loved something in the genuine article!

A classic blanket for a baby is Sirdar 3806, its a leaf pattern with a lace edge. Been around since the 70's and still beautiful. I knit it for every new baby in the family, I think each baby deserves an heirloom piece.

A Taggie with lots of ribbons and a crochet blanket.