Baby Burp Cloths

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Baby Burp Cloths

I think most people understand the importance of burp cloths for infants, even if you have never had children of your own. These little cloths get used almost hourly and get tons of ~~abuse~~ use. They get washed at least twice weekly, possibly daily, and can usually be found all over one's home, car, and shoved in any bag available.

The problem is most people do not buy themselves any cute burp cloths. I like to think the cuteness helps cover the job they are actually doing; Cleaning up 'burps'! For this reason, I love to make burp cloths as gifts for new mothers. I have showed how I made some adding fabric and ribbons in this post. I have made dozens this way and every one tells me they get lots of use!

Today I have something a little different in mind. If you are new to my blog, we are in temporary housing while our house is slowly being built, and I don't have all of my things. I don't have my sewing machine or my huge stash of scrap fabric. So I had to be a little creative when deciding to make some burp cloths for two mother's with new little boys. My post about a month ago where I showed how to monogram napkins using fabric paint inspired me to try fabric paint on the burp cloths. I really did not think it would work. I buy the thick kind of cloth diapers to make my gifts, and I thought the paint may just soak in and not leave clear images. I am happy to report that I was wrong! I think they turned out darling and I can't wait to make more..... This is what I made.

Here is how I made them:
I printed out a picture of a crab, just because.... I also printed out a letter L and H, for the first initials of the two little boys. I then traced it onto my freezer paper, with shiny side down and tracing on the top. I kept the freezer paper over my cutting mat and using the grid lines for reference made marks so that I could use a hole puncher and have a straight line of holes.

Then using my cutting mat and my exacto knife, I cut out the inside of the crab and letters, and hole punched along my grid.

Next, I placed it on my washed and ironed diapers. I adjusted the crab and letter to where I liked and - with the shiny side down - I ironed it to my cloth, paying close attention to all the edges of the image and letter. I also ironed the strip with the holes, lining it up along the bottom edge of the cloth.

Once I was sure all the edges were ironed down tightly, I started painting. I used small bottles of fabric paint purchased from Michael's (yes with a coupon.....). I always paint from the outer edges IN, that way I avoid bleeding under the edges. Then I go around and fill in the inside. This took a little more paint because it did soak in to the thicker fabric in the center, however, it did not take as much as I thought it might.

Once everything is dry, then carefully peel the freezer paper back, being careful not to rip it if you are going to use it again (which I was).

This is a close up of the edge and the dots. You can see the edges are not completely perfect, but they look great considering it is a loose weave fabric. I also love the shimmer in the red paint, I was not expecting that and love it!