Baby Burp Rags

I seem to fly from one project to the next. This one I have been squelching to surprise the intended recipient. I don't blog much but friends do pop in now and then :)

Today's project was burp rags. I have done these a few times before. The mommies always tell me how much they use them, so I keep making them when we have a pregnant friend. I started this with my niece and if I had doubts, I only had to cruise her Facebook pictures to see the burp rags in almost all of her infant sons pictures. It really warmed my heart to know I gave her something she could really use.

I have experimented with the sizes trying to find what I think fits best on a shoulder. I like these best so far. I made them longer and narrower. I try to use an even yard of flannel fabric to keep this simple and inexpensive. And absorbent of course, LOL.

I cut my yard in half (18 inches) on the length. The width of the fabric was 42 inches on one piece and 43 inches on the other. I decided 10 inches wide would be good. That gives me 8 pieces of fabric per yard. Each piece measuring 10x18 inches.

Rather than making yards and yards of binding, I put 2 pieces of flannel right sides together, add a layer of low loft batting and stitch around the edges, leaving a good 3-4 inch gap for turning inside out. I do pin them due to the thickness. I also used a walking foot to stitch through the fluff.

A quick trim of anything excess then turning them is pretty easy. I use a wooden spoon handle to poke out my corners. I don't get crazy as these are functional and soft. I don't want crispy, perfect burp rags, I want something a mother feels comfortable using.

Once they are turned, I iron the snot out of them. This may sound silly but they are too fluffy to stitch. I use my iron going back and forth, up and down, almost to the edges to get everything smoothed out. then flattened. Once I feel I have a nice flattish rectangle, I iron the edges. I could slip stitch the opening closed but its just as easy to machine stitch it. I do a simple straight stitch around the whole rag close to the edge.

We used red trucks for one side and blue trucks for the other. It's a boy! 

Then I stitch at least 2 lines of stitching down the length of the burp rag. I could do more but I want this super soft, without grooves directing the baby spit down and onto mommas clothes. On today's rags, I only did 2 lines because the pattern of the fabric is a bit busy. On some striped and plain rags in the past, I did loops, flowers, whatever tickles me.

I used 2 yards of flannel and 1 yard of batting to create 8 sturdy burp rags suitable for spitty and drooling babies. It was a good afternoon of work.