15+ Embroidered Baby Gift Ideas for Boys and Girls

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New babies are everywhere, and this is a great time to share some of my favorite machine-embroidered baby gift ideas with new parents!

Personalized baby gifts are fun and inexpensive to make, thoughtful to gift, and almost always cherished by new parents. In fact, I still have many embroidered gifts I received for my baby showers, even though my daughters aren’t babies anymore!

I hope these ideas inspire you to start embroidering for the new babies in your life!

Fun Embroidered Baby Gift Ideas To Stitch

First, if you need inspiration, check out my big list of where to find free embroidery designs for babies!

1. Bibs

Bibs are great when babies start eating solids, especially in public! 

While we always stripped our girls for at-home meals, when we were out, we relied on bibs to keep their cute outfits clean. As such, I always appreciated cute baby bibs to show off my two girls at restaurants.

Fun things to embroider on bibs are month badges, names or monograms, appliques, and more! To embroider a baby bib, choose a cut-away or no-show mesh stabilizer for knit or terry bibs, and use a water-soluble topping for best results.

Full tutorial: how to embroider a baby bib.

2. Burp Cloths

Burp cloths are necessary with bibs when going on errands with a baby. I like to embroider burp cloths as a baby shower gift that pairs with a bib and onesie.

When choosing a burp cloth, make sure you choose one that’s very soft. Also, steer clear of dense designs that will be hard or pucker with repeated washings.

It’s always nice to add a sweet note to new moms not to rub the baby’s face with the embroidered side of the burp cloth. Instead, place that toward their back and leave the soft side toward the front. My post-partum first-time mom brain found me rubbing the decorative part of the burp cloth on my daughter’s face several times before it clicked NOT to do that. Sigh.

Stretchy burp cloths embroider best with a no-show mesh or cut-away stabilizer. While tear-away stabilizer can be an option, I’ve found this type of stabilized burp cloths to pucker more after repeated washings.

Tutorial: how to machine embroider a burp cloth.

3. Onesies, Sleepers, and Sleepsacks

Baby clothes can be difficult to embroider for beginners. They’re small, stretchy, and require extra care when hooping and selecting a design.

If you’re embroidering onesies, skip the newborn or 3-month sizes, and make hooping easier on yourself with a 6-month bodysuit or larger. Or, choose side-snap bodysuits that you can float when embroidering!

With infant clothes, always iron a layer of soft backing (like Sulky Tender Touch) on the back of the embroidered area to protect delicate baby skin from rough embroidery.

Regarding stabilizers, I use one to two layers of no-show mesh stabilizer, with a layer of water-soluble topping on the front.

Tutorial: how to hoop and embroider a onesie.

4. Personalized Baby Blanket or Quilt

If you have the time to sew and embroider a personalized baby quilt, the time you put into that will be very much appreciated by the new parents. If not, a personalized baby blanket does the trick as well!

You can choose a simple fleece or fluffy blanket, a flannel blanket such as a swaddle blanket, a muslin blanket (these are more difficult to embroider), or even a quilted blanket.

While I like to put the baby’s name or initials on the blanket, if the baby is already born, I like to look for birth stats on social media and add that information to the blanket—either that or a Bible verse.

Pick a good-quality blanket and use a water-soluble topping if there is any fluff on the top of the blanket. Choose the stabilizer for the blanket’s back based fabric qualities: an unstable, stretchy blanket needs cut-away stabilizer, whereas a stable, woven blanket can do well with a wash-away or tear-away stabilizer.

Tutorial: how to machine embroider a baby blanket.

5. Personalized Diaper Bag

If the new mom has already registered for a diaper bag (or backpack, my personal preference!), this is perfect to purchase and check if it’s possible to embroider.

Make sure it’s a material that will work well with your machine, and check that you can hoop or float it in just one layer if you don’t have an embroidery free arm.

I recommend against adding the baby’s name or monogram to the diaper bag if the mom plans to have several children and wants to reuse it. However, the mom’s (or dad’s!) monogram is a cute idea, along with a fun saying or other cute embroidery design.

6. Embroidered Bottle Bag

I’ve embroidered lunch boxes and always wanted to embroider a bottle bag for a baby shower gift but have never gotten the opportunity!

Whether the baby is bottle-fed, breastfed, or old enough for regular milk, a bottle bag to hold milk, formula, or even refrigerated snacks on the go is so helpful. I loved having my bottle bag packed when dropping my daughter off at my mom’s while I ran to an appointment, for example.

If you don’t have an embroidery machine with a free arm, you must ensure the bottle bag you select allows you to unzip it and lay it flat in your hoop.

7. Embroidered and Personalized Stuffed Animals

My daughters have SO many stuffed animals. That being said, a personalized stuffed animal is still a cute, embroidered baby gift for a girl or boy. I like to embroider the ears of stuffed bunny rabbits.

If you don’t sew the stuffed bear or animal by yourself, you’ll need to make sure you can pick the seams to lay the body flat and then have the skills to sew the body back together. Any stuffed animals with fluff will need a water-soluble topping.

Tutorial: How embroider a name on bunny ears

8. Changing Pad Covers or Flat Changing Pads

Changing pad covers are easy to embroider with a baby’s name. I embroidered a minky changing pad cover a few years ago that turned out so well!

Minky needs a water-soluble topping, and I’ve found the best results with cut-away stabilizer on the back. If you also buy a flat changing pad cover, you can add a cute design to the cover to match a diaper bag!

9. Hats or Headbands

Be careful not to put any embroidery that will irritate a baby’s skin. However, embroidering the fold of a baby knit cap or the outer layer of a sewn knit headband can make a cute gift set with a matching outfit.

10. Hooded Towel

If you purchase or sew a simple hooded towel, you can add a cute character, animal, or name to the hood part.

Just make sure you can place the towel flat to embroider if you don’t have a multi-needle embroidery machine. To embroider a towel, use a tear-away or wash-away stabilizer and water-soluble topping.

Tutorial: how to add embroidery to a towel

11. Lovey

While neither of my girls ever slept with a lovey, you can embroider a name on the side of a lovey. I tend to avoid this because a lovey is meant to be loved and chewed on. Hard embroidery doesn’t seem like it would be very comfortable for a little one!

However, this can be a cute filler to a baby shower gift basket. 

12. In-the-Hoop Baby Toys

SO many designers have in-the-hoop baby toys available. I have an earlier post about where to find in-the-hoop embroidery designs if you want to check them out. You can make stuffed animals, loveys, baby bibs, felties, and SO much more!

Creative Fabrica, for instance, has several baby bibs in-the-hoop and even a baby teether. 

13. Sleep Sacks

As long as the sleep sack has an easy-access zipper, you can easily personalize or embroider a sleep sack for a baby. 

14. Diaper Covers

The ruffle buns trend is big right now, as is adding embroidery to the bum side of diaper covers!

15. Car Seat Shoulder Straps

If you purchase strap covers with hook and loop fasteners, you can unroll these and embroider initials or cute designs for the newborn. 

Anything I miss in this list of possible baby embroidery projects? Let me know!