Made from soft flannel and cotton and fashioned into a modern interpretation of a baby quilt, Etsy crafter All the Numbers' gorgeous work of art would make a wonderful gift as well as a treat for your own child.

My mother-in-law made a blanket for our first child which almost seven years later is starting to show the wear and tear of daily use, but now that she's gone, the memories I have of the day she gave it to us and remembering using it to keep our baby warm are very important to me.

If you're not fortunate enough to have a seamstress in your family, the next best thing is to purchase a lovely blanket like this from an artisan who takes the time to make something you can treasure forever. They're available for $140, and you can also request custom colors if you're looking for a set to match your nursery decor. - Erika

Babies love to play with lots of different textures. What better way to engage their predilictions than with a tag blanket made just for them? This great tutorial of how to make your own tag blanket is a fun and easy way to introduce new textures to your baby.

Babies also love to play with the different ribbon and loops of this blanket. The size of this design is perfect for a little one to carry around, without having to lug around a huge blanket. I remember looking everywhere for one of these when my daughter was younger, but I couldn't find them anywhere. Glad to know that there is a tutorial out there that I can use for baby gifts or for the next baby we have. - Trisha

If there is one thing that your baby is guaranteed to do (aside from loving you) it is emit bodily fluids. Whether we are talking pee, spit-up, drool, actual vomit, or all of these at once, the baby will be making a mess.

You’ll need to cope with these fluids somehow. If you want to minimize your expenditure on paper towels, and don't feel like buying a heck of a lot of actual spit-up rags or burp cloths, here are some other options for wiping, sopping, and dabbing.

Dish cloths. Dish cloths are great because once baby grows out of the fluids stage, you’ll still have them for use in your kitchen. Buy a dozen- they work wonderfully.

Face cloths and hand towels. Along with the dish cloths, you can use small terry towels. Again, the added bonus is that once baby outgrows the fluids stage, they are still useful in your household.

Cloth diapers. If you already have cloth diapers this is ideal. To prevent using them up too fast, we sort our laundry by its yuckiness level- so a cloth diaper that has a bit of drool and spit-up in it goes in the "baby laundry" while an otherwise identical cloth diaper soaked in urine goes in the "diaper laundry."

Onesies. Sure, you put them on the baby as clothing. But if you got dozens of them as gifts, why not use some as rags, too? They are convenient, soft, absorbent, and in many babies' wardrobes they are really plentiful. Cute tee shirt yesterday, wiping up drool today, toss it in the laundry and it’s a cute tee shirt again tomorrow.

Receiving blankets. Big messes require big rags. Don’t discount blankets - for drool, try to use them a couple of times (perhaps four messes, one for each corner) to minimize your laundry load.

Leftover paper napkins from restaurants. I don’t know about you, but I have a bunch of these in a drawer that I never remember to use. Recently I started putting them in the diaper bag for on-the-go fluids removal. So handy! I’m not usually a paper products kind of girl, but I figured if I already have these stored up in my house, might as well put them to good use. - Leigh G.

I don't know about you, but I used a lot of different baby blankets for my daughter. I used to match them to her outfit. (Pathetic, I know!) I always loved it when people would ooh and aw over her blanket and I could tell them that I made it. Baby blankets are fairly simple to make and here is a great tutorial from the Craftster forums.


Craftster user ammem tells you what you need to make a basic blanket, how to sew it, and even how to miter the corners, which give your blanket the nice diagonal line in the corners. The instructions on the corners are on the second page of comments, so keep reading.

You could also use one or two pieces of fleece material and then sew a blanket binding around that for a nice warm winter blanket. I prefer my blankets to be square, so it's easier to swaddle. That means if my material is 45 inches wide I would get 1-1/4 yards of material. Then I fold the material on a diagonal and match up the edges, then cut off the excess material, if there is any.

The tutorial-writer also sells baby blankets on Etsy, if you're looking for something just as cute but don't have the time to make it yourself. - Trisha