Burpin' it

Looka, yet another burp cloth!  This time it's flannel gingham backed toile with ribbon taggie trim and embroidery.  Seriously? Babies are gonna puke on this blue cuteness?

Flannel burp cloths

Made a stack of flannel burp cloths for my breeder friend and embellished with owl appliques and stitched initials.
Here baby, puke and spit up on my hand wrought work.

Baby stuff

A gal in my Girl's Night Out group had a baby last week and we showered her with gifts at dinner the week before.

While I'm no fan of babies, I actually like making baby gifts. Go figure.

Her first child was to be a male child so off to fabric store in search of masculine fabrics to sew a stack of reversible burp cloths. (No more sewing diapers for me. The diaper fabric slips and slides to make for a jumbled sewn mess.)

Oh Fuh Gawd. Have you shopped for baby fabric? It is the worst. Little cars, little trucks, and girly fabrics galore. Oh, and John Deere shit. Tractor brand for a new born baby? Get this, there's even John Deere motifs in pink. Sure, pink tractors are great for future dykes and farmer chicks but I'm not digging the lame-o bambino themed prints. Wonder if style and good taste disappear with gestation?

ANYwho . . . .so not impressed with the fabric choices.

Found a flannel plaid (you KNOW I loves me some plaid) in the apparel fabric section and combined it with a flannel polka dot print. Boy-like but not hokey.


Used a cloth diaper as a cutting guide, sewed the coordinating flannel prints face to face around 3 sides, turned inside out and then top stitched around all 4 sides plus two lines to emulate (simulate?) a true diaper. It gives a bit of body to the burp cloths plus "quilts" the fabric so it lies flat.


The onesie is a quick reverse applique with T-shirt knit scrap. So dang easy. Click HERE to see my tutorial.


The gift wrap was my favorite part. Most baby gifts from me are in the "special delivery" theme. Brown paper packages tied with string, a vintage diaper pin embellished with a blue scrapbook flower sticker plus a rubber stamped paper package tag. The stack of burp cloths and onesie were folded and placed inside brown paper and SEWN closed with a zigzag stitch. Edges were trimmed with pinking shears.



Fast, simple and (as Elizabeth would say) so stinkin' cute.

Burp cloth baby gift

Needed a quick baby gift so figured I would just back a diaper cloth with one piece of fabric instead of just the edge, as I've done previously. Pulled the fabric out of the stash and nary a one was large enough. Hellfire! Pieced coordinating fabrics and sewed to diaper. Truth is, I like mixing, matching and piecing fabrics. Unable to stop myself, I added decorative top stitching and accent stitches.

However, sewing on diapers is bitch. The fabric is squirrely, moving this way and that. After turning inside out, I tried top stitching on one and resorted to hand stitching on the other.

(Anyone have a recommendation for tightly woven diapers that are less like gauze? These are Gerber pre-fold.)

Quilting for the hard headed

After completely failing on my first quilt endeavor, no way was I gonna throw away those pieced fabric scraps so sewed them together to make blanket binding and attached it to my semi-quilted blanket. I kinda like it because the color combos make me happy.
Knowing that I would hoard the scraps, it became priority for me to use every last piece. Here are the remaining pieces attached to diaper burp cloths.

Here baby, spit up on the quilted fabric

that took a week to construct and destruct.

Diaper burp cloth experiment

Got on a roll last night in the SkitzoLeezraStudio and stitched a diaper burp cloth with my endless supply of blue and white polka dot fabric. It looked good but I thought it would look better with a little personalization.

Because I am so incredibly blessed with craft supplies of every ilk, out came the letter stencils and disappearing ink pen.

Easy machine sewing on the line and looka, a nice quilted and puffy "C"!

(Next time I will stitch in a brighter contrasting thread.)

Whatchathink?

3 bears 3 burp cloths

And my first attempt at crayon tinting! I perused the tutorial offered at Pimp Stitch and made some lazy girl shortcuts, below.
The embroidery Pattern glommed from doe-c-doe's site. She graciously shares embroidery designs and while I am no fan of "cutesy", the three bears were perfect for a 3 pack of baby burp cloths. doe-c-doe's illustration had all 3 bears in one illustration but I split up the kvetching family by downloading the graphic, printing 3 copies, trimming each bear individually, tracing with an iron-on transfer pen and ironing 1 bear each on 3 burp cloths. Note: I did not use the mirror image option on my printer but should if image is directional.

Skipping 2 -3 steps in the crayon tinting process, I simply filled crayon color after the transfer was ironed. Then I placed a clean sheet of paper over the tinted graphic and ironed again to set color.

Next was stitching. With a little touch of femininity for Mama Bear.

After completing the first bear,

I realized the stitching could be hidden in the many layers of the diaper with only knots on back. My next lesson to learn is how to use waste knots.

(I still maintain burp cloths were wrongly named.)

Burp cloth from cloth diaper

It is a NEW cloth diaper, people!
On a big black and white kick lately so when buddy Elizabeth wondered how to finish the bottom edge of the cloth, out came the black and white fabric scraps. See? THIS is why I don't throw away anything.
Elizabeth has a big fancy schmancy embroidery machine so it will look even MORE fabulous with a stitched name or monogram. How cute is this?

Burp cloths

Y'know, I burp all the time and I don't need nor use a burp cloth. Could it be that burp cloths are misnamed? Would a more accurate label be "puke rag"? Eh, never mind, keep calling it a burp cloth.

Anywho, the breeders are at it again. All of 'em are having babies. Though not a fan of babies, I like making baby stuff. You won't see me laying out cash for an extravagant baby gift. If ya can't afford the stuff, you shouldn't have the kid. 'Nuff said.

Please to enjoy, in all of their glory, are the latest burp cloths, hand embroidered by me. These are nice linen-type tea towels, purchased from KMart's Martha Stewart line.

Here baby, puke it out on my handstitched hard work.

Burp Cloths

Don't really dig cross stitch crap but think it is cute for baby stuff like bibs and burp cloths.
Here baby, please burp and throw up on this nice cotton towel that I stitched and personalized with your name.