Handmade Receiving Blanket

I once knew a friend in college who would buy an entire outfit when he went shopping. He would never walk out of a store with, say, one shirt. Instead, he would buy a patching pair of pants, and maybe a tie, to go with the shirt. He told me that this way, he would never have an unmatched shirt that would remain untouched in the closet with a tag still attached. The shirt will always have a place to go, as part of a complete ensemble.

I thought his shopping method was crazy at first. Seriously, why would anyone want to spend money buying an entire ensemble every time they shopped? Where’s the creativity in mixing and matching? Then I started thinking about his strategy some more and realized that it was actually very efficient!

While examining my growing fabric inventory the other day, I was saddened by the amount of fabrics I had stashed away completely untouched, simply because these orphan fabrics had nowhere to go, with no other designs to match.

Now when I shop, I try to incorporate the friend’s shopping strategy and have a solid game plan before I click “proceed to checkout.” I’m now committed to only buying fabrics that I have the intention of using, along with other matching fabrics that I would need to make a project. I won’t pick up a fabric, however pretty it may be, if I don’t have a specific plan on how to use it.

I’m happy to report that this plan worked on my last fabric purchases. I was able to use up all the materials that I purchased (made burp cloths and now, this receiving /swaddling blanket), without having any leftovers!

Burp Cloths: $2.50 / each