Wrap you up in love : An upcycled baby blanket for Avery

Avery Rose made her debut on December 10, 2016, with a full head of hair and an impressive lung capacity. Needless to say, Jon and I are pretty in love. 

Although I was pretty low-key for the majority of my pregnancy (blame it on the morning sickness), I may have gone a little nuts over the last twelve days. Suddenly, I’m a germaphobe who sanitizes everything and gives the side eye to other people’s sticky-handed children in the pediatric waiting room. Suddenly I can’t sleep at night, looking into Avery’s cradle every five minutes to ensure she’s still breathing. Suddenly I’m the kind of person who rush-orders baby noise blocking headphones because the building’s fire alarm went off twice. Suddenly the world is a much scarier, dirtier place than it was before. And I want to create a force field around this baby girl to protect her from all of it. 

Instead I made her a blanket. 

I found the double-gauze cotton in a seagull print at Britex (made in Japan by Kokka Fabric). Super soft and ocean-themed, it was the perfect choice for the top side of Avery's baby blanket. For the other side, I found a swath of vintage ikat fabric at the General Store in San Francisco. I love how both fabrics work together without being overly matchy, and only contain a hint of girliness. There was plenty of the ikat fabric left over, so I made a couple of pillow covers as well (pictures of the whole nursery coming soon).

I wanted to have something handmade for Avery when she arrived. Something to carry on the tradition of my mother and grandmothers, all of whom sewed blankets for their babies. I may not be able to shield our little girl from the world forever, but at least I can wrap her up in love. And even if I'm 99% more crazy than I was two weeks ago, I'm 100% content. Which is a very strange feeling indeed.