Super Soft Burp Cloth Tutorial. Another T-shirt craft.

I  hoarded saved a bag of old t-shirts. Eventually, they might become garage cloths or a scarf or one of the nine millionty billion t-shirt recycling crafts on Pinterest and the interweb, right?  Or they could just be one more box of "junk" to move from Alaska to wherever we go. Anyway, I have been looking through my pins to make some cute burp cloths and bibs for Toots.  She'll be here in just a couple of months now, and even though she's our second baby girl, we don't have stuffies left over from big sister because she's 12 now. Those things have long since been handed down to other babies. I was brainstorming about what to use for backing on these since they need to be absorbent, and I really don't feel like spending more on pre-fold diapers.  While they make cute burp cloths, they are just as expensive as buying ready made cloths in the store.  I finally remembered the bag of t-shirts.  What's more absorbent and soft than an old t-shirt???

So here's my project.  Super simple.  I don't claim to practice the voodoo that is real sewing. I am not a seamstress, nor do I get paid to portray one on television.  I make things stick together with stitches. If you can sew a semi straight line, you can do this.

Step one: cut fabric rectangles.  Mine are 11x14 because I had a nice cardboard template. (pssst...It's the back of a watercolor pad) I used the t shirt for backing and a pre-washed flannel for the other side.  Both absorbent. Using a rotary cutter, I simply placed the cardboard on the fabric and cut my pieces.  You could also use a straight edge and measure, or just use scissors, but I'm for the fast way.

 

Step Two:  Sew front and back together with right sides facing.  Leave a three or four inch opening to turn the 2 ply cloth right side out. 

 

Step three:  Snip the corners so they will be square when you turn them and turn the whole thing right side out through the opening you left.

 Step Four: When your project is right side out, it will probably have wavy edges and it won't be aligned.  You can use an iron here to flatten your seams.  I didn't have much luck ironing a stretchy t shirt, so I opted to roll the edges out and pin the perimeter. 

 Step five:  Top stitch about 1/4 inch from the edge of the entire perimeter.  If you want, you can make this a double seam.  I usually run two or three lines on quilted blankets, but I left these cloths at just one top stitched seam.

Note:  I planned to have these little crocheted flowers on my cloths, but I sewed one together before adding this to the top layer.  If you want to add embellishments like this or embroidery to your cloth, I suggest you do it to your top layer of fabric BEFORE you sew your layers together, otherwise your stitches will show on the back. Duh. I figured that out on the second one. Of my set of four cloths, I have two that are embellished and two that are not. We might not feel like barfing on flowers every day. : )

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 Here's the finished set.  I got four 11x14 cloths from one old t-shirt and about 1/3 yard of flannel. The crocheted "flowers" are from Michael's. I bought them about 6 months ago on clearance for 25 cents each, and used scrap ribbon for the stems. I kind of think these would be cute placemats, too if they were larger. Remember to pre-wash your fabric so it doesn't shrink and wrinkle when you wash your final project.

I'd love to see your baby projects.  Link up in comments below, or like KH Kellum on facebook and share there.