easy peasy burp cloths tutorial.

i do not want my little pringle to suffer the fate of the cobbler's children, so i am getting a head start on sewing for my baby. the other day as i wandered through the fabric store, i came across some lovely flannel on super sale. i decided to buy some to make some burp cloths. i chose four different fabrics and bought a half yard of each. not sure about the general sizing of burp cloths, i turned to the internet. i quickly discovered that "basic burp cloth patterns" are overly complicated, because they are always in the shape of a peanut. now i have not ever raised a child, so maybe i am missing something, but for the life of me, i cannot figure out why a rectangular-shaped burp cloth is undesirable. i have a feeling that all of you moms out there are snickering and thinking, "ha! she will learn soon enough that the only way to properly handle spit-up is with a peanut-shaped cloth," but just in case there are other folks out there like me, i have created this tutorial for the world's easiest rectangular burp cloths. if you can sew a straight line, you can make these.

materials (for five burp cloths about 8" x 18"): 1/2 yard of each of two different complimentary flannels and thread.

step 1. cut your fabric into 8" strips (don't worry about cutting the length - it is already 18"). you should have ten of these strips - five in each color. cutting perfection is not of the essence, because we will clean it up in step 3. 

cut 2 pieces of flannel about 8" x 18"

step 2. put one strip of each fabric right sides together. i did not use pins, but if you are a uncomfortable sewing without pins, then now would be your moment of pinning. when you are ready to sew, start in the middle of one end and sew around the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance. leave a 2" opening to turn the cloth right-side out.

step 3. clean up the edges and cut off the corners, making sure you do not cut through any stitches.

cleaning up the seam allowance and cutting off the corners.

step 4. use the gap to turn the cloths right side out. if you have a bone tool, now would be the time to put it to use. if you do not have one, use a chopstick or some other small pointy-ish thing to push out the corners.

a bone tool.

the cloth turned right-side out.

step 5. iron the cloth flat, making sure the seams are pulled out as far as possible. tuck under the edges of the gap and iron flat.

step 6. sew around the edges with a tiny seam allowance (i did about 1/8"). this will close the gap and make the cloths look pretty.

sewing along the edges will close the gap. the closer the better.

and that is it!! you are done. enjoy your stack of easy peasy burp cloths.

two of my finished burp cloths.