My friend had a baby recently, and I wanted to give her some cute burp cloths for when she takes her daughter out to show off!  I scoured Pinterest until I found a burp cloth that was easy and adorable and followed her instructions found here.  But while I loved her pattern, I thought it would be helpful to have picture instructions for newer sewers. So here it is!

I added a layer of fleece in between because I had two babies that threw up a lot!!!  We definitely needed that extra layer of absorbency.  Put the right sides of the front and back fabric facing each other – in my case, it was the pink/gray fabric and the gray flannel.  Place the fabric that you’re using for the extra layer on top – in this picture it’s the pink fleece.  I know this feels counter intuitive to put the middle on top, but after you stitch it and turn it right side out, the fleece middle part will actually end up in the middle.  Fold all three pieces in half and place the pattern (found on the original tutorial) on top and pin in place.

Cut out burp cloths.

Open them up and pin all the layers together.

Sew around the edges, leaving an opening on the long straight side, about 3 inches long.

Make notches on the curved edges.  Don’t skip this step.  It seems a bit tedious, but it helps the fabric to curve beautifully when you turn it right side out by removing some of that extra fabric on the curves.

Turn it right side out and you should have an opening like this left. (See how that pink fleece magically ended up in the middle?)

Tuck the opening inside and pin it closed. Then iron the whole thing.  My grandma always said ironing as you go makes the difference between something that looks “homemade” and something that is more boutiquey “hand made”.  So iron as you go!  It makes it not pucker and look crisp and beautiful.

Now you’ll do your top stitch.  This really finishes it off and makes it sit nice and flat.  Start at the pinned opening and begin sewing just inside the edge.

Continue around the entire burp cloth and there you have it!  The dimensions on this burp cloth are 9 1/2″ wide by 16″ long.  If you get 1/2 yard of fabric that is 42″ wide, you can fit four across.  So you would need 1/2 yard for the front fabric, another 1/2 yard for the back fabric and 1/2 yard for the middle extra absorbancy.  Since you won’t see that fabric in the middle, you could use any kind that you find in the remnant bin!  I just like the fleece because it makes the burp cloths much more substantial.

I rolled up four coordinating ones and tied them with a super wide 3″ grosgrain ribbon.  Lovely!

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