Stork Pouch/Hanging Cocoon

I have been having a wonderful time searching for crochet baby patterns on-line as they range from hats, boots, toys to photography props!  It is very special taking photos of newborns as they are so delicate and tiny, and they change so quickly within the next few weeks and months!  Ryan and I cannot wait to meet our little one and document every step of the way through photography 🙂

One of the photography props I stumbled upon is called a “stork pouch” or a “hanging cocoon”.  Babies are placed inside these pouches and they look oh so adorable all curled up, nice and snug (click here to see plenty of baby cocoon cuteness).  These are meant to be a photography prop only and babies should not be left unattended or actually carried around in these.  There are plenty of these stork pouches being sold on Etsy here, but I found a free pattern on Alli’s Crafts here so I thought I would try and make one for ourselves!

Stork pouches look great with chunky yarn, so I went and picked out “Bernat Roving” in a light green colour called “Low Tide”.  This yarn is very very soft 🙂  After reading through some comments on Ravelry, I decided to also use a bigger crochet hook than the pattern calls for (I used an 8 mm crochet hook instead of a 6 mm crochet hook) since some people stated their stork pouches turned out too small.  Using a bigger crochet hook also helps make the stork pouch more stretchy.

Here is the bottom of the stork pouch…

Adding more and more rows!  I ended up adding two more rows after Row 10 before decreasing, following the advice of other Ravelers who thought the pouch was not deep enough.

Next came the strap part!

I did three extra rows for the strap just to use up the rest of the yarn.  And so, this project took up one whole skein of yarn!

The finished product!  I have no idea if this is a good size, but I’m hoping this stork pouch is not too big and not too small!

This stork pouch by itself is not all that exciting for now since it is empty…  But we cannot wait for the arrival of our little one!  Two months to go 🙂  Had you ever heard of or seen a stork pouch/hanging cocoon prior to this?  Good job to those who correctly deduced what this was in the sneak peek!  I LOVED reading your creative guesses of what this could possibly be on the blog, facebook and tumblr- they all made me smile and I thank you for always commenting and being such a supportive community!  Once again, the free pattern for this stork pouch can be found HERE.

We have been working hard on our nursery and I have many other baby projects to share with you!  I am definitely going to try and get as much blogging and crocheting in before the sleepless nights begin 😉

[Update: Here is baby Myla in the stork pouch!  It did not cover her entire body as I thought it would, but she still looks adorable in it 🙂  We decided not to hang the stork pouch, but lay it on the carpet for the photos instead!]