March 13, 2011

My First Sewing Project- Burp Cloths


My first sewing project with my sewing machine was burp cloths for my soon-to-be baby boy. At that time I didn't know if I having a boy or a girl so I chose fabrics that were gender neutral and basically all about birds and animals.

After looking up in a few tutorials online I felt confident that this is a project I could do-- even me someone who never has done a sewing project.
At Make and takes she shows you how to make burb cloths using ribbon-- good images but I found it was hard to do ribbon. 

And at a Chelse Morning she really documents step by step how to make them.

Well my first attempt I just wanted to add a pretty stitch to to edges... well.... this was the a bit of a mess...


Pretty good for my first time putting on my sewing machine right?

Well then I had a dear dear friend come over and show me what I was doing wrong... the sewing machines LEG wasn't down, oh now I get it.  Tried again and it was much better.

Following the instructions from the tutorials - I pinned on the fabric I started -- boy was it fun, I could stop just making burp clothes!  Couple days later 24 Gerber diapers later I had 24 awesome burp cloths! 
Few tips:
-Pre Wash the diapers and the fabric. (then you may have to iron)
-Cut strips of fabric bigger than the middle piece, then fold under to have a nice looking hem
- Pin your fabric in such a way that you can pull away the head of the needle while you are getting to it with the sewing machine
- Break up the pining of fabric on to the actual sewing part, will make it a lot more fast and fun if you are doing multiple burp cloths
- Get the diapers on sale, I got my gerber ones at Babies R Us by one get one free

5 months into motherhood they are still being used daily!  Even my little one approves.

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