This blanket was part of Alastair’s coming home ensemble. When he left the hospital wearing his tailored boy bonnet, a Maggie’s Classic daygown and wrapped up in this shawl, he was the quintessential old fashioned baby. His Gerber Baby good looks added to the overall pleasing presentation.
Swiss flannel is such a wonderful fabric, especially for babies. Invariably, the mothers have reported that the weight and texture make it the ideal fabric for their little ones. The weight is just slightly heavier than batiste, but the little bit of nap offers a tad more cuddliness.
The weight also makes it very suitable for a nursing cover up. It is not too heavy and when folded is compact enough to fit easily into even the most chock full diaper bag.
Having made several baby blankets of this luscious fabric, this one ranks as my all time favorite. The combination of the geometric and cross stitch embroidery designs with the contrasting bias binding gives a rather tailored yet heirloom look. It took what seemed like an eternity to hand whip that binding down, but the result made it all worth while.
For the life of me, I cannot recall where I got the geometric embroidery designs, but I do remember cutting and pasting elements and combining them for the effect I sought. At the center is the fil tire’ design I use so often, from Fil Tire’ and Fancywork Combinations. The monogram is my favorite font, #22, from PE-Design. It stitches over the fil tire’ very nicely.
The bias binding is the very sheer finella Swiss batiste. Its light weight was a nice companion to the Swiss flannel.
This blanket was a perfect companion to my grandson’s coming home outfit. Elegant, yet warm and snuggly for a March baby, it wrapped him in warmth and love.
