Here's the second installment of Baby Sewing: Burp Cloths!
These are fun because you can do whatever you want with whatever scraps you have leftover from the blanket! Get yourself some Gerber 12-Pack Prefold Birdseye 3-Ply Cloth Diapers with Padding - White
. These ones with the extra padding in the middle are best. You can easily get them at Target, Babies R Us etc. I stick with Gerber (no endorsement just a better product).
You should wash them prior, they shrink and move and it just makes for a better end product. After washing measure the middle section, its usually around 4"x19" but definitely measure for shrinkage purposes :) haha shrinkage...
Once you have your measurement you can do several things;
1: Just cut a single piece and zig-zag that sucker on. This is good to do if you have an exceptionally cute or intricate fabric. Sometimes its just best left simple. One word of advice, Pin Pin Pin!! the guazey material moves a lot. You'll end up with some funkiness if you don't make sure its solidly in place. It should look something like these:
you can also make them look a bit more professional by cutting 1/4" larger piece of material and folding the edges over and pressing them before sewing it on. It makes for a cleaner look but I usually opt for the zig zag because its quicker and easier. Both ways work....
2: Multiple fabrics sewn together. This is the fun one. Be creative. Just make sure you measure right :) allow for 1/4 extra to sew the pieces together. Here are a few I've done:
3: Run along the edges instead of down the middle. Like so:
for these I will definitely recommend folding a 1/4" under and pressing it before sewing on. It looks a lot better.
5: Embellishments. I have seen lots of sites where people add embellishments, rick-rack, lace, ribbon even buttons etc in addition to the fabric. I'll go ahead and say that I don't like anything other than fabric on a burp cloth. I'll take that one step further and say I only like flannel on them. Because really, the thing needs to be functional, if you were an infant would you like it if your mom dragged a burp cloth across your face that had scratchy lace or rick-rack. Not really. I'll stick to soft cozy flannels...
The more creative you get the cuter they turn out!
I've been busy trying to get a bunch of projects done. But unfortunately I've had a few FAILS along the way.
1: While trying to work with organza material to make a sash for my daughters flower girl dress I screwed up a few things. First, I didn't buy enough material. In order to make up for that I had to do some creative sewing/cutting. I thought I had it ALL figured out. Then I cut it too short. Twice. So that project got scrapped. Instead I'll be heading out to the store where we got the dress tonight and buying a new sash...all the while spending more money when I previously thought "Oh I can totally do that myself and for WAY cheaper" Hahaha... Oh well, sometimes you can and sometimes you can't.
2: While sewing some curtain valances for my daughters room I messed up the following: I cut the material the wrong way :( chalk it up to late night and not paying much attention. So I had to improvise and sew 2 pieces together. All in all, not too big of a mistake. THEN When putting the 3 materials together I did it in the wrong order. It looked off, so I scrapped those and tried again. When I was getting ready to put the tabs on the top I noticed just how see through the material is. So I'll be making a trip to the fabric store to get extra fabric to sew behind it as a liner.
3: Whilst sewing a TOP SECRET project the other night I had my very first Broken Needle on my sewing machine :( It was my own fault for not paying attention and changing the setting before starting. The needle went down just to crash onto the top of my 1/4 inch foot and make a CRAZY sounding noise. But these things happen right? Luckily I had an extra, switched it out and kept on going.
4: After what I thought was careful measurement of exactly how much fabric I needed to do a border and backing for a quilt, I came up 3 inches short. Overall not too big of a deal I just cut from the scrap to get the extra 3 inches that will inevitably be cut off anyways. but still, ANNOYING.
Overall, here are a few things I've learned:
-We all mess up now and again. Nobody No reason to quit.
-Don't try to sew when you're grouchy and 7 months pregnant and its 11:00 at night. It's a bad combination and you do stupid things.
-Make sure you know the fabric your working with. Organza is difficult. And really, cotton for a curtain valance...silly me...
-There's almost always a way to fix it. If you can't figure it out, someone else will know how!
-The whole "Measure Twice, Cut Once" proverb couldn't be more true for sewing. Seriously, just measure it again and make sure you did it right...Sometimes the proverb could be changed to "Measure Three times, Cut Once" just for people like me who don't learn from prior sewing mistakes :)
-Be thankful for the people in your life who are willing to help when you screw up crafty things (or when you screw up anything else for that matter). It was a hard week to have sewing problems and not be able to call my mom for help. Good thing I've got some great friends and great "Aunts" who are ever so crafty and a great hubby to come over and check on me after hearing a few bombs drop and making me just go to bed :)
Any sewing fails you've had that taught you something valuable? I'd love to hear it!
PS: can't WAIT to show you the super secret project. It's so cute!! but so late! The baby its for is already 3 weeks old! Doh!
Hands down my favorite things to make are for a new baby. I love flannel blankets and burp cloths and fun little toys too! :) And the best thing is that its usually pretty easy stuff! Plus I've got my little one coming in just a few months and well I'm pretty much obsessed with baby things right about now :)
I'll start with a post on BLANKETS! Because really they're my absolute favorite! These are without a doubt some of the best blankets I've used on my kiddo and will use with the next one. My Mom made these for everyone and they were always a HIT! I'm so blessed that I had enough time with my Mom for her to show me her tips and tricks. A fun note: baby blankets were the very first thing my Mom showed me how to make. I was pregnant with Katelyn and I wanted to make her some things. And the sewing just snowballed from there :)
I always make a double sided flannel blanket with coordinating fabrics. I make it 36"x36" so its nice and big and comfy. Not like those little crappy receiving blankets sold in the store. I've done them 2 ways:
Frayed Edge: cut your coordinating fabrics 36"x36" make sure to round the edges. It looks a whole lot better in the end. Take something round (I've always used a coaster but a cup or bowl will probably suffice too) and use it as a pattern, cut all 4 corners together for consistency. Place your fabrics wrong sides together and sew (use a zig zag or fancy stitch) about 3/4" in all the way around. After its sewed together, take a scissors and snip the edges all the way around. leave anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2" between snips. Here's a blanket with snips shown:
Well its actually hard to see them... but I hope you get the idea. Before you send the blanket as a gift, toss it in the dryer for a few minutes and it frays nicely. Nice, quick and EASY!
or there's the Ric Rac Bordered blanket: still cut 2 coordinating flannels 36"x36". For this you take one piece of the flannel and sew some ric rac on. Really you could use any sort of trim but I've only used Ric Rac. Pin the ric rac around the border right on the edge (sorry no pics...) and then sew it on just under 1/4" in. It ends up being right along the edge of the inside scallop. Once that is done, sew the two fabrics right sides together, leave room to turn it, then blind stitch it closed. Please don't ask me how to blind stitch as I've always been bad at explaining, I just know how to do it. Now you are done:
Now this is a quilted flannel one, which I will save for another post, but it was the only pic I have!
Stay tuned for some more baby fun to come!
