Bunting for Emmeliese

I am so excited to finish this project! This is a bunting for little Emmeliese that I'm hoping to use when we bring her home from the hospital.

I created this pattern after making a pattern I found for a sleep sack for a preemie. It just wasn't what we needed and after spending about an hour wide awake one night, I realized how to make this. I ripped out the other one the next day and started on this one. Instead of making it in joined rounds, I split it open, added a button placket and made it close in the front. Then I decided to make puffed sleeves on it. The yarn is Plymouth Suri Alpaca and Merino blend in white with two strands of yarn held together to make a nice thick and very, very soft little bunting. The only downside is that I sneezed my way through making it. I hope after a wash or two, the fibers will calm down, else we might have a sneezy ride home!

I made a hole for the seat belt of her carseat in the back of the bunting. In the front, I made the bottom buttons closer together to compensate for the carseat belt. We've needed a carseat-compatible bunting for both of our other children, but the one we bought was HUGE compared to our kids. They finally got to the point where they would have fit it in about June or July. And then they sort of didn't need it.

A row of double crochet on the bottom provided a place to thread a chain of pink yarn to tie into a bow.

When I decided to make this, I imagined big chunky buttons on the creamy yarn. But darn if I could find any! And I couldn't find much info on the web on how to make any, so I created a tutorial posted below.

I'm so happy with this, aside from the sneezing, and think it turned out almost exactly like I imagined it. And I'm thinking that if we are blessed with more children after Emmeliese and it happens to be a boy born in winter, I may just make new buttons and re-do the sleeves.

Of course, if that's the case, I may just want to make something entirely new! :)