April Showers…. generally that means rain to get the ground ready for Spring.  But around my house, it recently meant baby showers.  My daughter was hosting a shower for a friend who was having twins – these were her first children, so of course there were not any ‘leftovers’ in the essentials department (namely onesies and burp cloths).  The expectant mother had asked for those types of items as part of the gifts being brought to greet her little darlings.

So, being inventive, that’s what my daughter and the girls decided to do for the baby shower.  They purchased a bunch of plain onesies, and cloth  diapers to use as burp cloths.  Then (with permission) they raided my stash of small fabric pieces.  Each particpant at the shower was given a blank canvas (onesie or diaper) to work with – and they created appliques to go on their ‘canvas’.  The applique was made using fusible webbing (Wonder Under in this case).

Everyone had lots of fun exploring their creativity, even though many of them had never touched a sewing machine.  Here are some pictures of what they came up with (click the picture to see the larger image).

After the shower, I got to do my part – doing the actual applique stitching on the projects.  So as you can see, this is a shower idea that even a group of non-sewers can do!  (Just make sure you have at least one person willing and able to do the final stitching!)

Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila