So I am going to be an aunt soon. We attended the baby shower recently and had a lovely time. One of our gifts to the expecting couple was burp cloths.
I am a fairly practical person and these items are very useful. I got the idea from my mother-in-law when she made some for me long, long ago. Not only were they pretty but they were great for minimizing baby hurl on our clothes (or wiping it off the couch) and they lasted long enough to be used as dust rags after their initial application was no longer required. They are simple to make and I think a great gift to new parents; ones who don’t have a clue about what “fun” awaits them in the coming months. LOL!
The key is buying the heavy duty diapers with the tight weave.
The best part is going to the fabric store and picking out decorative ribbon. A myriad of choices awaits you. I chose three different ribbons. We know they are having a girl so I just had to get pink and of course, with my veterinary background, cute animals.
You want to know how much ribbon to buy before you get there. There are ten diapers to a pack. Each diaper edge is about 15 inches long. For ten diapers that means 300 inches of ribbon or 25 feet or 8 yards approximately. For example: the spool of pink circus ribbon was 7/8 inch wide and nine feet long. I made three burp cloths with it.
The first step is measuring the ribbon to fit the ends of the diaper.
Make sure that you have enough ribbon to extend ½ to ¾ inch over the edge of the diaper. This is so you can turn the raw edge under to finish it. Not only does it look better this way, you don’t want your beautiful gift to have frayed ribbon after only one wash.
Cut as much ribbon as you need for your project. Then fit a ribbon to the edge of the diaper, fold under the end of the ribbon, pin it to the diaper and you are ready to sew.
Here is the close up finished product on each diaper
All three together
For fun, we saw a prank gift box at the store and put the burp cloths in that and wrapped it up. The merriment of the party was elevated when the soon-to-be-mom took off the wrapping. I told them that I had one of these for my guinea pig and it worked really well. We got a lot of laughs and giggles out of the couple and the shower attendees when they read the outside of the box.
For all you ladies that craft and sew, keep this attractive, thoughtful, and useful gift in mind the next time you get invited to a baby shower.
