My niece has just brought home her twin little girls. Since she lives a couple of thousand miles away, I haven't seen them. I have no experience with little babies, even full sized ones, and have no idea what size blankets to make for these little tykes. I believe they now weigh about 5 pounds each.
I've ordered some fleece and flannel from TSWALTH, and I want to be ready to cut and sew when it arrivees. Any suggestions for size?
New babies are usually wrapped in receiving blankets for awhile, I like to make them 45X45. That's a nice big square that can be used for a long time. Check With you niece though about fleece ones those. As far as I know fleece is not used until the children are well past a year except in a carriage when mom is always with them. That was the last word from my daughters when they had babies.
Juno
When I brought my 5lb twin daughters home 39 years ago (can't be that long!) they grew like well-watered weeds. All for standard-size baby blankets. Don't know about any fleece restrictions with newborns; curious about that. Karen in CO
Perhaps this article will help as a guide.
Not quite what you are asking about, but my niece who was born in Australia had a fleece. Not a fleece such as Malden Mills makes, but the kind called sheepskin. She slept *on* her fleece rather than under it. My sister-in-law swore that they could have put that fleece on the edge of a cliff, and Morgan would have slept on the fleece, never rolling off it or down the cliff. She did put it on a bed, and sure enough, baby slept on the fleece, never going off of it.
Kathy, They are 5 pounds today, but by the end of the month, they may be 6 lbs, just kidding! But they do grow very quickly, so I would make the blankets at least 36'' x 36" and flannel is perfect, but IMHO, fleece is not appropriate for small children. Emily-mother of 5, grandmother of 6.
When my preemie DD was born (4lbs. 7oz.), her Grandmother and I spent the week she remained in the hospital making 18" doll clothes and blankets for her, and tearing many of the cloth diapers in half and hemming them. The blankets were about 36"square IIRC. Later they were given to her older sister to use for *her* doll. But don't knock yourself out, the babies will only stay tiny for a short while, and Mom will need regular-sized items soon.
Beverly
Beverly & everyone else who has responded,
Thank you all so much for the input. My original idea, before posting, was to make blankets maybe 20" square. My sister has already made a number of 45" blankets which she says are wa-a-ay too big for now. Everyone seems agreed that 20" is too small, so I think I'll go ahead and make some 36" square blankets of flannel, which may be too large now but it sounds like the girls are likely to quickly grow into them. When they grow out of them, their mom can either use them for rags or donate them.
After all the comments on the fleece, I'll just use the flannel for the babies and the fleece I can always use for projects for myself or for later after the girls are older.
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