Flannel and Minky Remnant Projects

After sewing up flannel receiving blankets, and minky and flannel pillowcases, I was left with several pieces of adorable remnant material.  I love minky and flannel, and had to put them to good use right away.  The softness of the flannel and minky make them ideal materials for any baby related project.  Burp rags and taggie cuddle squares won out this time.

  Because I had coordinating fabrics, I was able to make some cute burp rag sets to give out as gifts. I've sewn several different styles of burp rags, but a simple rounded rectangle is my favorite.  The straight edges make it easy to turn right side out, and then topstitch down. I don't remember the exact dimensions of these, but I'm thinking that they were around 9"x14", that makes it large enough to lay down and use as a changing mat if you're in a crunch.  

Another favorite scrap related baby project is the sensory cuddle square.  This allows you to use up all of those small pieces of ribbon that you couldn't toss, and gives baby something soft to hold onto.

I like to make my taggies squares, but you could even through a few pieces of ribbon onto the ends of your burp rags. You can make these any size.  I made two 12 inch squares and a 10" square as well.  You can always sandwich in a piece of crinkly plastic, but for some reason the thought of laundering the plastic deters me.

You can find my Sensory Cuddle Square tutorial here.

Sewing For Baby: Burp Clothes

Every new baby needs a burp cloth at some time or another.  While not all babies seem to have quite the same projection, burp clothes are a nice thing for any new mother to have on hand.

I used some of the scraps of material that I had on hand from the mitered corner receiving blankets, and some minky from the car seat canopy and cuddle square, to make a few quick burp clothes.  I made two different styles of burp clothes.  The two shown above are based on a free pattern from Cloud 9 fabrics, you can find the pattern and tutorial here. 

They are flannel on the front, and cuddle fabric on the back.

I also used up some fleece and flannel to make some serged edged burp clothes.  Both styles of burp clothes come together really quickly, and would make a nice, practical, and inexpensive gift for any new mom and baby. The great thing about the fleece backed burp clothes is that it provides a moisture barrier, that way nothing seeps through the flannel and onto your shirt. You can find the tutorial for the fleece and flannel burp clothes here.

Thanks for reading, and for all of your kind comments on our "nursery".

Minky and Chenille Cloth Diaper Burp Clothes

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd share some other little shower gift ideas.  Now I didn't get super creative with my gift giving, but I do always like to throw in something practical.  I know that I was a new mom I was amazed at how many burp clothes I went through.  Even though Clark didn't have any major spit up problems, I found them extremely useful, especially when nursing.  At the beginning of the nursing adventure I would have to slide one burp cloth down the side of my shirt that I wasn't nursing on, because a nursing pad didn't suffice.  

Hopefully I haven't made any of you feel too uncomfortable. The point is that burp clothes are a necessity for every new mama, reflux or not.

You can find cloth diapers in most any baby section.  I picked up a six pack for six dollars at our local wal-mart. I then gathered some scrap minky and chenille that my mom had left over from a baby quilt she made years ago.  The only scraps that she had left over were long thin strips.  It is difficult to use a scrap of fabric to is too thin, but this is really the perfect project for those remaining fabric scraps.

Most cloth diapers have a center section that is somewhat padded for extra absorbency.  I simply measured the width of the section, and cut my strips of fabric to the same dimensions.  I believe that these particular diapers were 4 1/2" wide by 19 1/2", but make sure to measure for yourself if you try this project out. I then used my overcast serger to finish off the raw edges.  If you don't have a serger you can cut your strips of fabric 1/2" larger in each dimension, and then press the raw edges under 1/4" on each side.  Once the raw edges were taken care of I pinned the material to the center of the diaper, and stitched them in place.

 The soft cuddle fabric is especially nice for little babies.  My sister in law has some similar burp clothes that she uses, and she says that they wash up great, and her babies have all loved using them. Another variation is to cut the fabric to the size of the whole cloth diaper.  I didn't have enough fabric to do that, and I like this just as well.  You don't have to use a cuddle fabric, you can stitch colorful ribbons, or a quilting cotton down the center for the same effect.

I bundled three burp clothes together with a piece of lace, and clipped a little pinwheel hair clip to the top for a little extra decoration.  Simple, quick, practical, yet pretty. I love that they coordinated with the Sweetie Pi onesie and skirt.

Fleece Backed Burp Clothes

I made up a set of four burp clothes for my Sister- in-Law's baby shower last weekend.  Just recently I saw some simple burp clothes that were backed in fleece.  I'd never seen that before, but I love the added cushion that the fleece gives to the burp cloth.  I, myself, have rather boney shoulders.  I think that every newborn baby deserves a nice cushy shoulder to rest their head on.

To make these I used this basic tutorial from Oopsey Daisy to create the template for the burp cloth.  I then cut out one layer of cotton, and one layer of fleece.  I  placed them wrong sides together, basted the raw edges, and serged around the whole thing.

Now if you are a patient person, and like to crochet around burp clothes and receiving blankets, that could definitely be applied to this project.

I ended up quilting the burp clothes just for a little added reinforcement and detail.

Because you're working with two different materials, I'd recommend pre-washing all of your fabric on this project.