Baby clothes are so cute, tiny and precious. They bring us a lot of memories. Often I go to the closet, take out a box of baby clothes and look at those unbelievably small hats, shorts, onesies, bibs… I was wondering – what can I do better with those clothes than just keep them in storage?
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase from one of these links I will get a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
One time browsing on Pinterest, I found a wonderful idea of making a Baby Clothes Memory Quilt! I thought that it is a fantastic way to keepsake your baby’s cute outfits, so I started looking for more design ideas.
Most of all I liked a design where you are using whole pieces of baby clothes as you can see what they are and how tiny they are too.
I was thinking about this project for a couple of months – playing in my mind how I would like my quilt to look, trying to decide which clothes to use, and choosing fabrics that the baby clothes pieces would be appliqués onto. Finally, I was ready to start.
You can PIN this project to your Pinterest board HERE or PIN the image below.
How to make a baby clothes memory quilt – video
For this project you will need:
- Baby clothes
- Fabrics for quilt squares
- Fabric for backing
- Fabric for binding
- Batting material
- Pellon 906F Fusible Interfacing
- Scissors
- Sewing needle
- Iron
- Iron Cleaner (to clean off the sticky marks on your iron from fusible interfacing)
- Curved Basting Pins
- Cute appliques, buttons and other fun stuff to embellish your quilt. I like to purchase buttons on the Etsy website. You can find my favorite button collection HERE.
Directions:
1. First, I had to prepare the clothing – cut out part of the back layer as shown in the pictures, leaving about ½” trim to tuck in.
This will prevent from having raw edges when you do appliqués. Then I ironed interfacing onto each piece.
Do not cut out the back from such items as hats, bibs, blankies etc. We will sew them on as whole pieces.
2. I arranged clothes as I was imagining in my mind. But later my original arrangement was completely changed.
Also, I had to decide on which fabric each piece of clothes will be sewed on.
After I figured this out, I cut out fabric pieces for each clothes piece. The fabric pieces are about 3”-5” larger on all sides than the clothes pieces.
Then I ironed interfacing onto the backs of each piece and arranged all pieces again.
3. Next step – pin and then sew on the clothing pieces onto fabric pieces. Do not sew on saved whole pieces (hats, bibs, baby blankie).
4. Sew the fabric pieces together (trim them if necessary). Now you can hand sew the remaining hats, bibs, and blankies onto the quilt.
Also, I crocheted and sew on letters for the name. For the letters – I crocheted a chain for each letter and then made a row of slip stitches in a contrasting color, then I sew on crocheted chain pieces forming the letters.
At the bottom of the quilt, I had extra space to fill in. I made a panel with leftover pieces of baby clothes. Then I trim the edges of the quilt as they were not straight.
Here is how my quilt looked at that point:
5. Now is a fun part! It is time to embellish your baby clothes memory quilt!
I sew on different cute crochet appliques – baby stroller, cars, hearts, whales, fish, etc.
The patterns used for crochet appliques can be found in my Etsy shop and in Free Patterns section on this website.
6. Finishing your baby clothes memory quilt.
When the quilt top was complete, I prepared batting and backing. I cut batting and backing pieces to be about 2” larger on all sides than the quilt top.
Then I put three layers together and basted them – you can use curved basting pins or you can do that by hand.
I basted along the edge from all sides about 2” from the edge. Next, I trimmed the batting and backing even with the quilt top, prepared a binding, and sew it to your quilt.
My quilt is almost done!
7. Finally, I’ve embellished my quilt with cute buttons – I had different sizes of colorful buttons, buttons in the shape of cars and animals. They will also hold the quilt layers together.
My baby clothes memory quilt is now complete and can be cherished for years to come!
Here is one of the most precious pieces – a sleepy owl blankie!
My son had to have this owl all the time. So I bought 4 of them in case we can’t find it, left at the grandparent’s house, it needed to be washed or something else happened to it.
I hope you enjoyed this Baby Clothes Memory Quilt tutorial!
You may also like:
Crochet Tooth Fairy Pouch
Baby Stroller Applique
Crochet Stork Applique
Its amazing! Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is just wonderful! It is full of love and care and a Sunshine!!!!!!!
This is exactly the tutorial i have been searching for!! Thanks you so much for posting! This is a beautiful keepsake!
As I read your words… They sounded familiar. I have baby clothes to make your quilt my daughter picked out..
My granddaughter just turned 3.
How do I cut the clothes.. You can’t sew through all those layers, just what you did.. Thank you.. I can now get started .
You need to cut out part of the back layer of the clothes pieces as shown on the pictures leaving about ½” trim to tuck in. Then iron interfacing onto each piece.
Is the binding the only thing that cames the 3 layers together-you don’t have to hand tie or anything? Thank you
Error in above post. Only thing that keeps the 3 layers together
Binding and buttons are holding the 3 layers together. After I sewed binding onto the quilt, I embellished my quilt with buttons. I used many large buttons, buttons in the shape of animals and other cute buttons.
Thank you so much for the information. I LOVE the quilts that you’ve done.
Good luck to you in the future!!
I am happy that you like my quilt! Thank you so much for your kind words!
Thank you for this, exactly the information I’ve been looking for. My grandson past away last Oct at 2 1/2 yrs old. And I’m having trouble starting with making the 1st cut to his little clothes. This gives me a bit of encouragement!
I am so sorry to hear about your grandson! I even can’t imagine how you and your family are feeling. It is such a tragedy to lose a little child…
I hope you will be able to make this quilt and preserve memory about your grandson.
I’m just wondering what holds the quilt together because I sewed the clothes to big squares . Then I did the basting.How do I keep the quilt together?
The binding and buttons are holding the quilt together. I sewed on my quilt many different buttons – large buttons, buttons in the shape of animals, cars, etc.
Is it OK to wash these quilts?
I haven’t wash my quilt, but I think it would be OK to gently handwash it in cold water.
How much fusible interfacing would I need for 16 fat bundle squares, 18″X22″, and 14 pieces of clothing?
Thank you!
You will need about 20 yd of interfacing (20″ wide).