The Twins

Our twin grandbabies made their debut on January 11th at approximately 4:30 am. What a thrill that was to hold my grandbabies for the very first time!  Our daughter did such a fabulous job birthing these two little ones!
Claire Lilli weighted 5 lb 15 oz and Hayden George weighed 6 lb 8 oz. I think they are the most beautiful babies on the planet! :)

I held Claire first. She was screaming her head off when she and her brother were wheeled back into the birthing room where I had been patiently waiting for several hours to see them. I picked her up and held her close, but she was hungry and wasn't about to be distracted. Hayden was sleeping but soon became a little fussy. He was easier to distract and I soon rocked him to sleep in my arms while Claire went to her mama.

After they all came home 2 days later I began my new roll of "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" helping out with laundry, cooking, cleaning burping, changing, whatever I could do to help.

I love these little sweethearts so much!

Play Yard Fitted Sheet
Now that I'm back home for a few days, I'm back to making fitted sheets again, this time for the Play Yard (a kind of a cross between a bassinette and a play pen, using the old terms...) which is what the twins are sleeping in right now.



I measure the little mattress in the Play Yard, the top of which is 19 1/2 inches X 28 1/2 inches. (What an odd size!) The depth of the mattress is approximately 1 inch and I added another 2 inches on all sides for the 'underlap' part and also an extra inch for seam allowance around the edge:

Cut fabric:  26" X 35":
19 1/2" + 1" (mattress depth) + 2" (underlap) +1" (depth on opposite side) + 2" (underlap  on opposite side) + 1" seam allowance = 26" wide

28 1/2" + 1" +2" +1" +2" +1" = 35" long.

Once you've done that, cut out 4 corner squares (2  3/4"  in size) and discard them.
Now sew the 2 sides of the cut square part together to make  the fitted corners.

To make a neat seam at the corners with no open edges, first sew the seams together with wrong sides facing (about a 1/8" seam), then turn it inside out and with wrong sides facing, sew another seam on top of it, this time a 1/4" seam. This will enclose all the raw edges neatly.

After that you need to use a zig zag stitch to sew on the 3/8" elastic on the seam all around the edges. It is a bit tricky to stretch the elastic at the same time as you sew it onto the fabric, as I may have mentioned before, but it does get easier with practice.

Receiving Blankets
We also realized that the babies didn't have nearly enough receiving blankets. I had made some and we had bought some as well before the babies arrived.  I had tried to find out what the ideal size was for receiving blankets. Seems there really is no such thing. Some are square and some are rectangular, some huge and some smaller.  I think it depends on what you intend to use them for, swaddling the babies or just covering them, or using as spit up collector  when you burp the babies.  I came to realize that some of the ones I had sewn were a bit too small and some too big.

For swaddling, the best size seems to be 28" X 37" inches, so I hemmed a few more from flannel fabric.
I cut the flannel 29 1/4 in. X 38 1/2 in ( 74 cm X 98 cm), then pressed a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edge. After that I turned the edge over again about 1/2 inch to stitch an outer seam. I used a straight stitch on most of them, but tried a zig zag stitch on the last one. I don't think it makes much difference as far as wear goes, but it does take a lot longer to zig zag it, plus uses more thread.

I'm looking forward to doing some quilting again soon, maybe another raggy flannel quilt or a whole new baby quilt... we'll see. :)