Well, we’re still here, waiting for the baby to arrive. Our due date is just over two weeks away, so we’re mostly just waiting.
I’m not very good at waiting.
So I’m trying to get as many things done as I can before (s)he decides to show up, and one of those things is putting together a gift for Little Man from “Tiny” (his name for the baby until it’s born.) I think that Little Man will do pretty well with a new baby, but we just won’t know until then, will we? I’m hoping this gift helps him to feel special when the new baby gets a good portion of his heretofore undivided attention.
I looked up “Big Brother Bags” on Pinterest to get some ideas, then combined Little Man’s interests with my skills to make something special just for him. I knew I wanted to make a special bag and a shirt, and then fill it with some other things he might enjoy.
For the bag itself, I used my Silhouette
software to create this design, then cut it out on the machine. It was my first attempt at cutting fabric with the Silhouette, and while there was a slight learning curve, overall it worked quite well. I used the Silhouette interfacing on the back of the fabric, and after cutting it out, I ironed it to this canvas tote bag I found at the fabric store.
I had planned to sew the fabric onto the bag, but about 5 stitches in I realized it was just not going to work. The coarse nature of the canvas meant the interfacing didn’t adhere really well to it, and since the bag only has one opening, it required lots of crazy maneuvers to get the needle where I needed it, and the fabric started to come off. So I decided to be a big cheater and used a permanent fabric glue instead. It was easy to peel the blue fabric right off since it didn’t stick well in the first place, then I just painted the glue on the back and stuck it down. It was way faster than sewing, and I figure the bag won’t need to be washed very often, so it’ll probably hold up.
Note: I wouldn’t suggest doing the glue on clothing items because it makes it a lot stiffer, and while it’s permanent, it might not hold up as well in the wash. Since the canvas bag is already very stiff, the glue doesn’t affect it much at all.
Update: In the end, the glue did not hold up well after several months, so I ended up sewing it on with my sewing machine. It was a bit tricky, but it worked and made the bag more durable by far.
As far as the things I put in the bag, we have (from left to right): a Crayola sketchbook
, a pack of stamping pens (from Ikea), a CD/DVD combo of They Might Be Giants’ “Here Come the 123’s”
, a Big Brother shirt, and a Melissa & Doug sticker pad with animal silly faces
. I might throw a new book in there, but we’ll see if we get there. Ha!
When I thought about what to put in the bag, I thought it would be helpful to get things that didn’t necessarily have to involve lots of adult supervision. For instance, Little Man LOVES board games, but those require lots of help, and in those first few weeks (months!) hubs & I may not have long enough periods of time to play one with him. So these are fun things he can do when he needs to be on his own for a little while.
I used the Silhouette to cut out the letters for the shirt, also. You could definitely cut these out by hand, too, but it saved a ton of time to use the machine. Beyond that, I did the same thing as I always do with appliques.
Just iron on, then sew with a blanket stitch to secure.
Ta-daa! All back in the bag. We’ll probably put a big gift bow on it, too, since Little Man thinks those things are the greatest. 🙂
What have you done to help with the transition for your own kids when adding a sibling?
