Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a great start to 2012! I thought I'd share a sewing pattern that I whipped up for burp cloths. With a new baby in the house, you can never have enough of these! And, they make great gifts for new moms.
This is a wondering first sewing project for beginners because it's all straight lines.
Materials Needed to make 2 burp cloths:
- 1/2 yard of quilting cotton
- 1/2 yard of terry cloth
- Sewing thread to match fabric
- Rotary cutter
- Cutting mat
- Scissors
- Straight pins
- Iron
Directions:1. Cut out your fabrics using your rotary cutter and cutting mat – I cut 2 pieces 14 x 22 inches. I tend to cut out pieces two at a time to save time. If you fold your fabric in half you can get two pieces easily by cutting off the fold.
2. After cutting out your fabric – put one piece of cotton and one of terry cloth on top of each other with right sides facing. Pin around the outside to make sure it doesn’t move while you sew.
You are going to turn your sandwich inside out when you are done, so you have to leave about a 2 inch hole in order to do this. I like to put a green and red pin at the start and end of this hole so I know where I am. (sometimes I get carried away and forget to stop sewing at the hole! The red pin helps prevents this.)
3. Using your machine’s foot as a guide for the seam allowance, position your fabric on the machine so your foot is even with the edge. Start sewing at your green pin, but remember to remove the pins before you sew over them so you don't break a needle.
4. When you get to a corner, stop sewing with the needle in the fabric, lift the presser foot and rotate your fabric 90 degrees and put the presser foot back down. Continue sewing on the next side. This helps give you neat right angles at the corners.
5. Continue all the way around until you get to the red needle. At the red needle stop sewing and backstich a few stitches for extra strength since you will be turning your fabric at this point and putting extra stress on those stitches.
You are left with a two inch opening.
6. Clip the corners of your burp cloth to remove extra bulk.
7. Turn your cloth inside out.
8. Find the hole you left and turn the ends of the open fabric under to make a neat seam and pin closed.
9. Iron your cloth to remove any bumps.
10. Starting at one end of your hole, make a top stitch as close to the edge as you feel comfortable and stitch all the way around. Don’t forget to make your neat right angle corners by lifting the presser foot and turning your fabric before starting the next side.
11. Once you are finished with the top stitching, I like to add a few rows of quilting to the top. I ran 3 straight lines down the length of my cloth. This helps the cloth keep it’s shape. You could even get fancy and add some decorative quilting!
12. Trim all your loose threads and you are done! Go find a drooling baby to mop up!
This pattern is for personal use only.
