It was cold and gross here this weekend, so while we were stuck inside, I made it my mission to find a use for some of my old fabric scraps. We’re pretty much set when it comes to clothes and blankets for baby Libby, but something we definitely didn’t have enough of was burp cloths.
I decided to sew a few, but the process turned out to be so quick and fun that “a few” burp cloths quickly turned into a dozen! I snapped a few photos to share, so here’s a quick tutorial if you’re stuck inside and get the urge to sew pretty baby things this winter.
The finished burp cloths are thick cotton on one side and soft flannel on the other and measure about 9″ x 19″. I had two 40″ x 40″ pieces of flannel on hand, so each yielded eight burp cloths.
I started by cutting a piece of flannel to 10″ x 20″ and a coordinating piece of cotton to the same dimensions. Then I pinned the two pieces, right sides together.
Next I sewed around the edges, using about a 1/2″ seam allowance and leaving a 3-4″ gap along one edge.
I clipped the corners (see photo above) to make the finished corners a bit sharper and turned that bad boy right side out.
Next up, a quick press with the iron to make those edges really sharp. This is where you should make sure the edges of the hole you used to turn the piece right side out are folded in and ironed nice and straight.
The last step (see, I told you these were quick!) was to topstitch about 1/4″ from the edge all the way around the cloth.
Here’s how this one turned out!
Since half of my flannel was pink and all of my cotton had some shade of pink in it, I just used pink thread for all of the burp cloths.
Here’s the flannel side. I like that the flannel makes the burp cloth a bit more substantial and will help keep the cloths from falling off our shoulders. Of course, I haven’t tried these yet with a spitty baby, so I may be wishing they were thicker, but I made so many I figure I’ll just double them up if necessary.
Super easy, right?
This is a great way to use up any cotton scraps you might have lying around, and a little flannel goes a long way. Now to find an empty drawer to stash these guys before the baby comes!
Happy sewing!
