No Sew Hats

These little no-sew hats are a great project for anyone who wants to help but doesn't sew. They're quick and easy and nice and stretchy (one of the most important things for angel hats)

Look at how much these little hats stretch!

Hat un-stretched

Hat stretched wide

Ok here's how to make these no-sew hats:

This is the main thing you need to get started:

This is my favorite place to buy the stockinette so far - Express Medical Supply. I have yet to find it in local stores. If anyone has another good resource for finding this, let me know!

Orthopedic Stockinette
Cotten Stockinette is a tan/flesh color

Synthetic Stockinette is white - or at least closer to white. It's a little off white, but close enough.

For the smallest hats (less than 20 weeks) you'll need 2" wide

20-26 weeks = 3" wide

26-32 weeks = 4" wide

As for length you'll need about 8" for 2" wide, 11" for the 3" wide, and 15" for the 4" wide

For this tutorial I'll be using the 4 " wide stockinette and making one of the larger hats.

First fold the stockinette inside of it's self. It should be doubly thick, with all the cut ends at the same end.

Be careful not to let it get twisted up. You want it to lay nice and flat once it's folded up.

Pinch all the ends together

And then secure the pinch with a piece of ribbon tied tightly. I generally put a bow in the ribbon for little girl hats and knot the ribbon for little boy hats.

Fold the brim up an inch or two

And you can be done right there! the hat is ready to go. But if you want to add some embellishments keep reading:

One of the easiest ways to embellish the hats is to add a shank button to the ribbon. Shank buttons have a little loop on the back of the button. It's a lot easier to tie on than a button with the regular holes in it.

You can also hot glue little ribbon roses to the ribbon for an easy embellishment:

 Finished hat sizes - they're half the original length you cut, but that makes it so there's no cut edges except at the top which is tied with a cute ribbon so it's not bothersome.

THIS is where I learned to do this

Crochet Blanket Borders

I don't have a lot of links for these, but here are some beautiful edges we've seen lately. If anyone has links/documents they'd like to add to this post, let me know. I'd love to have more links for doing edges. I don't know how to do edges as much as I'd like.

Fanciful Fences: http://newstitchaday.com/how-to-crochet-the-fanciful-fences-stitch/
For this stitch make sure to turn the blanket over between the foundation row and Row 1. I also do hdc instead of dc to make it a little smaller with the Caron yarn. On each corner on Row 1 I do: [2dc, ch 2, 2dc, ch 2, 2dc] 

And here are a few links I do have:

Star Edge: http://yarncrazygirlpatterns.blogspot.com/2009/11/star-edging.html

Quick Blanket Edges: http://www.petalstopicots.com/2012/04/quick-and-easy-crocheted-blanket-edging-patterns/

Princess Edge: http://www.caddesignllc.com/free patterns/ammees_princess_edge_0608.htm

Pillow Case edges: http://sara-vs-sarah.blogspot.com/2011/08/crochet-edge-pillowcase-tutorial-part-2.html

A few ideas (not tutorials): http://rosehip.typepad.com/rose_hip_blog/page/2/

Festive Edge: http://elisabethandree.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/festive-blanket-part-2-the-edge/

Chain Frill: http://www.how-to-crochet-instructions.com/crochet-edgings.html

Pumpkin Patch: http://fiberflux.blogspot.it/2012/09/free-crochet-patternpumpkin-patch-edging.html

Reverse Single Crochet (or crab stitch): http://www.fuoriborgo.com/fuoriborgo/2011/05/reverse-single-crochet-a-simple-finishing-stitch.html

Pointy Bits: http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/coffee-vs-computer/

Some new things

We started off September by a trip to the play place in the mall and trading outfits with some wonderful ladies. They have done some amazing work!

Here are a few of my very favorite things that came in during the month of September:

I cannot get over these little bones! They are SOOO cute!

And we've got a tutorial coming up for these little no sew hats sometime soon! But for now we are rejoicing at finding a place to get 3" white stockinette and having a few hats on hand.

Small Diaper Pattern

Small Diaper Pattern

Sewn Pattern

18-25 week size

These finished diapers measure about 5" top to bottom, 1 1/4" at the crotch, and 5 1/2 " across the long tabs

We like to use 1 1/2" (or size 2) safety pins to close the diapers. But if you have a way that might be better that's fine too.

Small Diaper Pattern PDF

Instructions:

1. Print/cut out diaper pattern

2. With fabric folded right sides together, trace pattern onto wrong side of fabric
3. Cut diaper out

4. Sew 1/4" seam around diaper - right sides of fabric should be together

5. Trim off excess fabric

6. Turn diaper inside out so the right sides are out.

7. Iron/Press diaper

8. Top stitch diaper

9. Fold tabs in and safety pin together

For our large diaper pattern click HERE

Our pattern is loosely based off of several different patterns:
Skip To My Lou
Doll Diapers
Sizing as compared to Teeny Tears

and also some hand drawn patterns that I'm afraid I cannot link to as they're not anywhere online.
Thank you for your inspiration! Also, special thanks to the volunteers who helped write and test the patterns.

Terms of Use

We ask that our patterns/products made from these patterns not be sold. We create our patterns free of charge because we believe in providing clothes for angel babies free of charge for families who need them.

There are no stipulations on our patterns. Please feel free to use them and share them. We love to be inspired by seeing others work from our patterns and if you are interested in sharing pictures or stories with us email us at lilysangelcloset@gmail.com.

New Patterns and Terms of Use

Have you noticed we have some new patterns up?

Taylor Gown
Large Size Diapers
Small Size Diapers

We're working on getting a few more up too.

Please note:
I am NOT trying to take over any other organizations patterns or ideas. I have run into a little trouble with some other organizations feeling we're not giving them the credit they deserve for their patterns. I realize that every pattern has it's own terms of use but in trying to coordinate donations from many different people and places I can't always keep track of which patterns are used.

We love getting all kinds of donations and gladly welcome any and all patterns, but please be sure that you follow the terms of use on the patterns you use. If you need to add cards, give an account, etc - please do that before you give them to Lily's Angel Closet. We will always pass on any cards or information that come in with your donations.

Here are our terms of use for ALL our* patterns:
1. These patterns and the products they make should not be for sale. They were created and shared freely and we ask that they remain that way.
2. We require no account of the use of these patterns. Use them and share them freely! However, if you'd like to share what you've done with our patterns you can email stories and/or pictures to lilysangelcloset@gmail.com.

*All patterns on lilysangelcloset.blogspot.com and loveyoumorethanabus.blogspot.com count as our patterns - since I wrote the patterns on the bus blog too.

If you have any questions about any of this please email lilysangelcloset.blogspot.com and we'll get it all figured out.

Thank you to all the people who have put so much time and effort into getting these new patterns up. There are more in the works and it's turning out to be a lot more work than I realized it would be. I greatly appreciate those who have been helping me with testing and pattern writing and....well, I've had a lot of help lately, and I'm grateful for it.

Large Diaper Pattern

Large Diaper Pattern

Sewn

26-30 week size

These diapers finished measure about 7" top to bottom, 1 1/2" at the crotch, and 7 1/2" across the long tabs.

We like to use 1 1/2" (or size 2) safety pins to close the diapers. But if you have a way that might be better that's fine too.

Large Diaper Pattern PDF

Instructions:

1. Print/cut out diaper pattern

2. With fabric folded right sides together, trace pattern onto wrong side of fabric
3. Cut diaper out

4. Sew 1/4" seam around diaper - right sides of fabric should be together

5. Trim off excess fabric

6. Turn diaper inside out so the right sides are out.

7. Iron/Press diaper

8. Top stitch diaper

9. Fold tabs in and safety pin together

For our smaller diaper pattern click HERE

Our pattern is loosely based off of several different patterns:
Skip To My Lou
Doll Diapers
Sizing as compared to Teeny Tears

and also some hand drawn patterns that I'm afraid I cannot link to as they're not anywhere online.
Thank you for your inspiration! Also, special thanks to the volunteers who helped write and test the patterns.

Terms of Use

We ask that our patterns/products made from these patterns not be sold. We create our patterns free of charge because we believe in providing clothes for angel babies free of charge for families who need them.

There are no stipulations on our patterns. Please feel free to use them and share them. We love to be inspired by seeing others work from our patterns and if you are interested in sharing pictures or stories with us email us at lilysangelcloset@gmail.com.

The Taylor Gown

 The Taylor Gown

26-30 week size

This is an exciting announcement for us - our first sewing pattern! There has been a lot of work going into this lately. Ginger took a couple of our favorite patterns and combined them to make a gown that is easy to sew and easy to dress on fragile little ones. We named the gown after her angel, Taylor. We are also working on getting this gown in more sizes, but for now this is the first of our Taylor Gowns:

Here is the pattern PDF

I realize now on the instructions I forgot to add tacking on the ribbons on the back. I do that very last after I put the neck ribbon on. You could also add velcro on the back in about the same place. We'll be doing a picture tutorial soon for those of you who would like more instructions.

August Donations

July was a busy month and August is proving to be even busier. I photographed 6 angels in about 1 months time. I used my first crochet outfits for a set of twins in July. I finally gave someone an outfit I had made (a goal of mine this year). And then I took 2 weeks off and now I'm trying to get caught back up with making outfits and editing photos.

Here are some of the things that have come in this month:

This was after spending 1 week at my mom's house. A huge donation of outfits, flowers, bracelet sets, headbands, diapers, some blankets and my grandma let me raid some of her fabric boxes to see what I could use. Yes - all of this was donated in a week's time. 

And this was the next week - some wildlife blankets, a couple gowns, and some more diapers

I made up these tags a while back for some memory boxes a friend was making. I revamped them and now they are tags for our closet to add in the bags with the outfits so people will know where to find more information about angel baby outfits. Most of the cards have a blank spots for names of angel babies which the outfits are donated in memory of. 

We've also sent quite a bit out this month as well:

And this is a set of neutral outfits we sent to a hospital in New York along with some other angel baby crafter people.

This set when to a mom who had lost her little girl the week before. It wasn't used on the baby, but just a remembrance for the mom of the size of her daughter.

Last night I packed up a whole box of outfits to go to a photographer friend who was on her way to a middle of the night NILMDTS photo shoot an hour away. Sometimes we are spread thin and someone has to drive a long ways. There are 52 NILMDTS photographers in Utah. But that's not enough for the number of losses we get each month. 

And we started an adoption program on our Facebook page - you can now post pieces of sets that you have and others can adopt them and finish them off. It makes it really fun to coordinate and bring more people in on projects. https://www.facebook.com/groups/143567529150005/

We keep this page up and going and there are lots of sharing things, ideas/outfits/questions etc going on. Come and visit us if you want to know more first hand what we have going on.

Please note: if you donate diapers made from the Teeny Tears pattern without cards we CANNOT pass them along. Please include cards with your donations of diapers.

And we've had a couple really neat stories about outfits this month:

1: A photographer friend stopped by to get some outfits on her way to the hospital for a shoot. When she got up to the hospital they told her the mom had changed her mind and didn't want pictures at all. My friend offered the outfits anyway and the nurses came back a minute later saying the mom had fallen in love with one of the outfits and had changed her mind, that she definitely did want pictures now. It was an outfit I had made. It made my heart happy for days to hear that story.

2: Another photographer friend was out of town and was going to do a shoot for a friend of hers. My family lives close and my 14 year old sister has been working tirelessly on outfits for several months, and saving them all so she can show everything she's made in November for a project she's working on. When she found out there was a need for an outfit and we asked if we could have one of hers she told us that she had made the outfits to be used, not just to show her friends. We managed to get the outfits up to the photographer in time and we had others on stand-by in case we needed more help.

People are truly amazing and giving. I really can't open my closet without feeling love come spilling out of the open door. It truly is amazing. I continue to be inspired by all the wonderful giving people who make this closet a reality. Thank you to all of you out there. I know there are often times it feels like no one values the work you do, but I wish you could see the looks on some of the parents faces when we give them beautiful, appropriately sized outfits

Crochet Kimono Variations

Made with Caron simply soft yarn - F hook

Large size outfit - typically fits 20-22 week angel babies

Start with the basic Kimono pattern - for ease of writing this pattern these instructions are written for the 20 week size outfits. To size them down isn't hard - but all the numbers of stitches change.

The basic kimonos are a good place if you're just learning these patterns. These variations are simply to add some more decorations to the basic kimonos. These will have more difficult stitches than the basic kimonos which are all sc. You can find the pattern for the basic kimono HERE. This post will be updated with more variations as we figure them out. On this page I will be posting patterns that work for both boy and girl outfits - for all the little girl dress options visit the Kimono Dress Pattern.

SH = 3 stitches in one stitch

Chain 33 - turn

Row 1: sc 4 - SH - sc 6 - SH - sc 8 - SH - sc 6 - SH - sc 4 - ch 1 - turn
Row 2: sc 2 in first stitch - sc across - sc 2 in last stitch - total of stitches = 42 - ch 1 - turn
Row 3: sc 6 - SH - sc 8 - SH - sc 10 - SH - sc 8 - SH - sc 6 - ch 1 - turn
Row 4: sc 2 in first stitch - sc across - sc 2 in last stitch - total of stitches = 52 - ch 1 - turn
Row 5: sc 8 - SH - sc 10 - SH - sc 12 - SH - sc 10 - SH - sc 8 - ch 1 - turn
Row 6: sc 2 in first stitch - sc across - sc 2 in last stitch - total of stitches = 62 - ch 1 - turn
Row 7: sc 10 - SH - sc 12 - SH - sc 14 - SH - sc 12 - SH - sc 10 - ch 1 - turn
Row 8: sc 2 in first stitch - sc across - sc 2 in last stitch - total of stitches = 72 - ch 1 - turn
Row 9: sc 12 - skip 15 - sc 18 - skip 15 - sc 12 - ch 1 - turn

Cable Stitch Kimono

Row 10: sc 2 in first stitch, sc 1, fpdc 1 one row down, sc 2, fpdc 1, sc 2, fpdc 1, sc across the outfit - sc 2 in last stitch - ch 1 - turn.

Row 11: sc across - ch 1 - turn

Row 12: sc 3, fpdc around fpdc two rows below, sc 2, fpdc 1, sc 2, fpdc 1, sc across - ch 1 - turn.

Odd rows - repeat Row 11

Even rows - repeat Row 12

End after row 27 - edge entire outfit. Make sure to leave button holes along the side of the front flap that has the cabling.

For the smaller 18 week size outfits use this Row 12: sc 1, fpdc 1, sc 1, fpdc 1, sc 1, fpdc 1, sc across.