Baby Sewing Projects

I'm working on 2-4 baby sewing projects right now. Today I'll show you 2 of them. VERY EASY, even for a person (like me) who can barely sew a straight line.

One thing about sewing, I've learned to appreciate that quality cutting and measuring up front leads (hopefully) to a nicer end result.  And who wants to go to all the work of shopping, washing, ironing, cutting, and sewing to have something dumb/crooked/ugly at the end? Now if I could only buy fabrics that coordinate a bit better instead of all the random ones I like.  But you know what? Random is kind of cool right now, right? And as long as a burp cloth (DO NOT WRITE BURP "CLOTHE") catches barf, it pretty much meets its intended purpose, right? That's my hope.

Burp Cloth: I made some that were 12x18 (matching a diaper) and then a bunch that were 10x17 (seemed not as "huge" but I might go back to the bigger size...the problem is if you buy a half yard the fabric shrinks in the wash...well, I have around 20 10x17 cloths now for me and gifts so if that isnt' good enough TOUGH - clean up barf with your own darned bigger towel! 

Step 1: Choose fun Fabrics (note that "minky/soft" fabric like the top one is not easy to work with, moves around a lot - not an ideal beginner fabric)

Put your pretty outsides "inside" and pin all around. (I may have one cloth that is partially inside out...) I put 2 red pins in the spot where I want to "stop" sewing so I can eventually flip this inside out.

Um...flip inside out...iron (this eliminates more pinning later).  Then sew across the top to close your hole. If you want, sew all the way around. This looks a lot cuter but does take up a bunch more time. I made some both ways (different days) and washed the both and they both stayed flat...give me a few months and I'll get back to you on how necessary the whole "sew all the way around" thing goes.  Apparently, I have no pictures of the piles of these that I've completed. I'll work on that.

Baby Item 2: Pacifier Leash. There are about a million tutorials out there on these, so I won't re-invent the wheel. Choose your size. I did 1inch x 10 inches or so, but I saw up to 14 inches...but didn't want to risk choking the baby.  Cut your fabric to 4x11 (for seams) and then...iron it into "double bias tape".  There were a lot of other types of tutorials out there but I thought this concept sounded the easiest.

Meaning: First fold in half (so you have 2 inches wide.) Then open fold and fold both outside edges into the middle and iron again.

This makes a lot more sense if you've ever used double-biased tape/ribbon from a package.

Then fold again on your original fold and you should have a 1 inch strip that is 4 layers thick. (The flannels were a nice thickness -- fat quarters were extremely thin)

 Next, put your connector on one end, elastic on the other (Other tutorials have velcrow, etc - I liked elastic because you could also use it to attach a small toy), hide your edges, and sew-sew-sew all the way around.

Save yourself some $$ and buy these for $3-4. Or, don't - and buy 2 packs of the identical clips for $4.79 each. Your choice.  These are in the ironing section of Jo-Ann's, right by the $4.79 clips.

Finished product

Up close - notice I made a cute little "box"X shape on both ends to help keep the elastic really sewn in there.

Are you going to sew some now???