Customized Burp Cloths Tutorial

**Announcement: Looking for a unique baby gift (that you don't have to make yourself!)? Take a look at my new line of onesies from CSW Designs! Choose your animal, color and pattern (chevron or polka dot). Perfect for the little ones in your life! 

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Happy Wednesday, y'all! I hope you enjoyed yesterday's appliqued onesie tutorial. I know I left you in total suspense yesterday by not showing you how to make the matching burp cloth (ha!), but don't worry, today's the day. This project is much easier than the onesie, so if you were a little intimidated by all the intricate stitching yesterday, I think you'll have no problem with these - it's all straight lines.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Supplies Needed: Customized Burp Cloths

• Prefold cloth diapers
• Fabric
• Measuring tape
• Sharp scissors
• Iron (optional)
• Sewing machine
• Thread

Prefold cloth diapers seem to be the material of choice for these burp cloths according to other similar tutorials I've seen out there in the blogosphere. They're a great size, absorbent (you'd hope!), and the prefold makes it easy to fold and stack them. I bought a ten-pack of Gerber prefold diapers from Target for this project.

 And as you saw yesterday, I used these Carters receiving blankets for the fabric (more on that choice in yesterday's post).

After I washed, dried and ironed all the materials, I got to work cutting out a rectangular piece of fabric for the burp cloth.

I measured the width and length of the middle area of the cloth diaper to determine the size of my fabric. The middle section is thicker and more pad-like (since yes, it's a diaper!), and I chose to sew the fabric just down that section. It measured about 18" by 4". I cut a slightly larger (19" by 5") piece of the gray and white star fabric so that I had a little extra to fold under for a clean edge.

The next step is optional, but I recommend it because it'll make your sewing simpler and you'll get a nice,  straight edge.

Take your fabric and lay it down on your ironing board with the wrong side facing up. Fold one of the edges over about 1/4" to 1/2" and iron down. Repeat this on the remaining three sides. The photo below shows an example of one edge folded and ironed flat:

Lay your fabric with its nicely ironed, flat edges down on the middle of the diaper. Line it up so that it runs right down the thick middle area. Start sewing in one corner, placing the needle down about an 1/8th of an inch from each edge. You're basically sewing a continuous rectangle around the inside edge of the fabric. I didn't take a great photo of this, but here's a diagram to show you what I mean:

In this photo, you can see how close my needle is to the edge:

Once you finish sewing that one rectangle, you're done! That's it!

When you finish, fold the diaper up in thirds, and then in half,  keeping the pretty fabric on the outside, and you'll have yourself an adorable little burp cloth! Folding it up like this makes for a pretty presentation :).

Here's one with the blue and white chevron pattern by itself...

 ...and with its matching onesie...

...and here's the one with the gray and white star fabric complete with its matching appliqued onesie in the background. 

That about wraps it up for these two DIY baby gifts. Hope you enjoyed these little tutorials. As always, let me know if you have any questions. If you make one of these yourself, I'd love to see it!

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