A nursing shawl ~ A quick and easy project

It was exciting to have a new neice and nephew arrive last year (and another one is due to arrive this month) and this of course was the cause of some gift making. I don't think there is anything much more fun to make then baby gifts! :-)

   One Sister-in-law when I asked what she needed said she was still wanting a nursing shawl. That was something I had never used (I diligently breastfed all my babies but I simply wore shirts that were a bit loose and big enough to go over the baby's head and that worked fine for me.) but I had seen a friend or so use one and I thought it probably wouldn't be to hard to make.  So I did a little looking around online to get some ideas and decided to go to it!

I found some fabric I had on hand, yellow with bright pink flowers in cotton for one side and yellow flannel for the other side. I cut out a piece of each of them that was 29 x 38 inches. I placed the right sides of them together and then sewed along both 29 inch sides and the bottom (38 inches). Then I flipped it so the right sides were out again. Across the top I turned the raw edged material to the inside and topstiched it together along 12 inches of both sides (not in the middle).

 Next I cut out a strip of the floral fabric that was 30 inches long and 3 inches wide. This became the neck band. I folded it so that it was 4 layers thick and the raw edges were in the inside of the band. Then I pinned it on to the middle part (where the top wasn't sewn together) of the big rectangular shawl. When doing this you place part of the band on one side and the othter side of the band on the other side so that all raw edges are covered. I pinned the band on so that the was about 2 inches or less of excess band on one side of the shawl and the rest of the excess (15 or so inches) was on the other side.

After you sew the band onto the shawl you then need to insert something to keep it stiff so that you can have that little "window" to look down and see your baby. The ones I saw online said something about boning, and I think that would work well but I didn't have any on hand and I did have some of those plastic (?) strips that sometimes come around boxes and things that are delivered so I used some of that instead. Since it was a bit weaker than boning I used 3 strips and taped them togethter on the end so that there wouldn't be any sharp edges. Cut the "boning"  the same length  (around 13 inches) as the portion of band that is actually sewn to the shawl. Insert and then sew a little seam across the band to keep it in place.

Now you need to finish the rest of your neck band. Just tuck all raw edges in, and top stitch along the sides and ends. Then attach a button on the short side and on the long side put in buttonholes every couple of inches so it is easily adjustable.  The factory made ones I have seen actually use a metal loop type system but buttons seemed easier to me.

   I also added a pocket to the front just for fun. Maybe it will prove useful for something.

  My sister-in-law reported that it worked well so I was very happy! Sadly I had no babies around when we wanted to get pictures!

    I am sorry for the probably quite confusing directions, but if you sew you probably will discover that you can figure this out pretty easily yourself. It was truly a simple project. I just didn't take pictures of it while I was making it and I have a horrible time trying to explain it without being about to show you!

This is linked to A Soft Place to Land