The Christmas bells have rung their last tones, and 2014 has just begun. The baby is due any moment, and there's no more time to waste – we need to make the sheepskin baby bag for little Liv.
When we found out that I was pregnant, everyone was very excited. It would be the first grandchild on our side of the family. Mommo, mamma and I almost simultaneously said, “ I want to make the traditional sheepskin bag”! I was going to let Mommo do it, but then she suggested we do it together.
If you want to, I can make a tutorial on how to do it later, but for now, let me just show you the process briefly.
Mommo and mamma in mommo’s old farmhouse. They are measuring the sheepskin to see how big we can make the bag.
A baby bag made like this, made with love, and of such good materials is sure to be a family heirloom, and something that the child can have its whole life.
First, we measure, then we cut; and then it’s on to the hand sewing. When you make a big blanket out of sheepskin, it takes a lot of sewing. Thankfully, the baby bag has less stitching because it’s smaller.
Mommo mixing textile colors to get the perfect color for our prints. The prints are carved from wood, with the symbols that have different meanings.
It's hard to decide what patterns to make; the different symbols are all so pretty!
Finish sewing, ready for the print!
Here I am, nine months pregnant, in charge of the patterns. It’s a “scary” thing to do, because once the color hits the sheep hide, there's no turning back. Like mommo says, “ It will be what it will be.”
When the paint is dry after the printing, we sew on something we call bridal border (the wool on the outside) to finish the look. Nice huh!?
Baby in bag! She loves it!
Real untreated wool is some of the best a baby can use, in clothing, blankets etc. I even read an article the other day that said scientists found that babies who spend their first three months on animal hides get less allergies. And when its looks this great, it’s not a compromise at all.
