Patterns, colours, textures … and baby blankets

sketchbook inspiration

’Nobody get sentimental!’ I tell my girls as they help me lift boxes of their old baby clothes out of the attic. (Easier said than done) as we squeal at each baby bootie and teeny tiny babygro that they’ve ever worn. I don’t know why I do this to myself - why I hoard sentimental objects such as these in my attic… but I do! So with the urge to spring clean and a desire to have my attic space back I dusted off my sewing machine so I could finally make my girl’s a blanket each using their baby clothes. Again.. I’m not sure why I do this to myself and why I make such extravagant promises … but I do!

See this is not my first rodeo into the world of baby blankets - I first made one years ago for my eldest son. Had I known back then that I would go on to have 3 more children then I may have reconsidered taking on such a mammoth project and having to do this 3 more times. I have very little sewing skills … I’m more of a try-and-sew-in-a-straight-line-and-hope-for-the-best-kinda-gal. So here’s how one of my boy’s blanket turned out. I mean.. if you don’t look too closely it doesn’t look too bad. It’s wonky in places for sure… but it has character and that makes me happy.

As you can see here there are plenty of blues and greens in particular, lots of stripes and lots of different textures which make up a nice blanket. I also wanted to keep many of the little extras like buttons and pockets to make it more interesting. So as I lay out the girl’s baby clothes this time around I was really looking for the same result - lots of different patterns and textures that will sit nicely together side by side.

As you can see in this photo, this is where I start to visualise what the blanket might look like when it’s all sewn together. So whilst all these lovely patterns and materials lay there on my desk it got me thinking about how nice it would be to incorporate some of them into my illustration work. I often take photos of things that interest me to save for later for my illustrations but I also often lose them on my camera roll or forget about them entirely! So today I thought I would bring out my sketchbook to try and document as many of these lovely patterns as I could so I can use them for future reference…

… and I absolutely LOVED the process and the end result! I used a range of different materials to get these different effects. Watercolours, gouache paints, markers, coloured pencils and pastels. It was fun to just let go and explore rather than focusing on the end product. It was also really nice to see some colour combinations that I wouldn’t usually gravitate to, work cohesively. I can see that I will definitely use some of these in my illustrations as I’d like to continue experimenting with pattern and texture to create more interest for the eye.

The girls’ blanket is still a work in progress as my mind wandered off to explore patterns instead today but if you want to know how I create my baby blankets - here’s a quick illustration…