DIY Burp Rags

My niece is expecting her second child, a boy, in May. For her first son, I was able to crochet a beautiful blanket. And I was thrilled when she used the blanket for her son's first professional pictures.

This time around however, I have not had time to crochet anything! In fact I wasn't even going to make her anything, I was just going to buy a present, but I started thinking that there must be something that I could make that was easy, cute, and practical.

Searching through pins on Pinterest, I found a couple of ideas and decided on both. One was an idea for a burp rag, and the other was a swaddling blanket. They both looked easy enough, and I thought I would share what my version of the burp rags with you.

For my version of this project, I really wanted to use items that I already had on hand, so I decided that a white terry cloth towel would make a great burp cloth. The thing that I love about the towel is that it is absorbent, but not bulky and it fits perfectly over your shoulder.

Since my niece is having a boy, I love the idea of appliqueing a tie on one side of the towel. I could have also tried my hand at a teddy bear, but decided that the tie would be easier. For a little girl, a butterfly would be adorable.

So here is my towel that I cut into thirds. You can cut yours into however many you want, based on the size of the towel and how big you want your burp rags. I used my mother-in-law's serger on the sides that were raw. You could also zigzag stitch them, or you could hem them as well. For me I'm all about ease and I love using a serger!

My towel, cut apart and serged.

Next you want to make your template for your tie or what you plan on appliqueing. Here is mine. I just grabbed a sheet of construction paper and free-handed it. The first one I made was too small. So I made a larger one and it worked better with the size of my burp rags.

My free-hand template...not too bad from someone who is not artistic!

Then pick out your contrasting fabric. I was planning on using some that I already had, but I didn't have a lot of what would be considered "boys fabric." While I was at Wal-Mart, I found these cute fat quarters and since they were less than a $1.00 each, I decided to get them. I could have bought just one fat quarter and made the towels the same, but I couldn't decide between the fabrics. So I decided to get both. If I had bought just one, it would have yielded me three ties. So that means I have leftover material to make more in the future!

My ties, ready to be adhered to the towel.

Use the template to cut out your ties on your fabric and then use HeatnBond Lite to adhere it to the towel. Iron on the HeatnBond first to your ties. Make sure that you use the lite version, because you want to sew over it. All this does is stick it to the towel so it doesn't move, and it gives it a little substance as well.

Make sure you use the "lite" version.

Once you have ironed the HeatnBond to your tie and you have it positioned onto the towel, then peel off the backing and iron the tie to the towel. If you are unsure about this, just follow the directions on the package, they are really easy. I positioned my tie, 2" from the bottom of the towel, and then left a 1" space between the bottom part of the tie and the top part. That gave me plenty of room for sewing around it.

Ready to sew around.

Once you have it ironed on, then you need to sew around the fabric using a zigzag stitch. The stitch was adjusted so that it is close together. The first one I did, which was the baseball one, was easy. In fact I should have known that it was too easy. My next one was of course the tie with the words on it, and I had some trouble with the thread catching. So while the second one isn't perfect, I finally finished it.

Finished project...not too shabby!

I thought they turned out pretty good. And they were easy enough a beginning sewer could definitely make these.

The best compliment that I got was from my sister-in-law. She said that they looked like they came from a specialty shop. That is really something coming from her, she is the craftiest person I know! She makes me some of the most amazing Christmas gifts!

So there you have it. A quick, easy, cute, and practical baby gift. I really wish I had found these before. Everyone would have been getting these great burp rags from me! :-)

Let me know in the comments below what you think about these.

Leave a Comment baby, burp rags, crafts, diy, gifts, sewing

DIY Teacher Gift for Christmas!

I am so excited that I finally get to share with you a DIY Christmas gift!  I had really wanted to start sharing my gift series with you sooner, but it seems like life always has other plans.

For the first Christmas gift post, I thought I would share one of my favorite ones to make. It is a cool gift for a teacher.  This is something that I have given to my kids' teachers in the past and they always love it!

I have family members that are teachers, and their usual gift they receive is something like hand lotion, soaps, or a coffee mug. Instead of giving them the usual items, give them this wonderful little goodies box that can be personalized in a way that can include items that teachers need in their everyday use at school, as well as include some nice treats.  So without further ado, here is how I made these.

Items I used to make the boxes

You'll want to start with the box.  In the past I have purchased small tackle boxes from Wal-Mart that are around $3.00 per box.  They are great because you can customize the size of the compartments inside.  The boxes are sturdy, and they can continue to use them for small desk supplies.

Then one day while I was at Target and I found these great plastic boxes for only $1.00!  I loved these and picked up a couple, one rectangular, and one square.  Of course you can't change the size of the compartments inside, but for the price, these are perfect!

The magnets and the pretty alligator clips I got from Wal-Mart, the rest of the supplies I purchased from Dollar Tree.  I loved the fact that our Dollar Tree had some pretty paper that I could use to decorate the lid of the box and the best part is that it had an adhesive backing!  How easy!  Before I had always used scrapbook paper and a glue runner.

Adhesive paper.  If you look real close, you can see where I scored it to put on top of a box.

The first thing I did was to make a mark, or score the paper to the size of the top of the box I was using.  You can see in the picture above the crease of where I need to cut the paper to size.  You could also be more exact and measure, and I even thought about getting out my rotary cutter, but to be honest, I was a little lazy.

After I cut the paper to size, I peeled off the backing and stuck it onto the lid of the box.  Here is where I had some trouble.  I found out that once it sticks, it sticks!  There is no re-positioning this paper, so you have to be very careful.

Once I got the paper on the box lid, I then decorated it with stickers and glitter letters.  This is where to get the kids involved so they can customize their own teacher's box.  I usually put the teacher's name on the lid as well as some stickers.  For this project, I used what I already had on hand.  It just so happens that I had leftover glitter letter stickers and some 3-D stickers that I had purchased from the Dollar Tree for the Back to School Backpack Craft.

Here are all three boxes, decorated.

Next, comes the fun part of putting the goodies inside.  I used some items that I already had on hand, paperclips, staples, and pencil lead, and then added in the decorative magnets, alligator clips, and of course the candy!

Inside the smaller boxes

You can see that in the square box, there were four compartments.  Besides the school supplies and candy, I decided to add in some tea.  For the rectangular box, there were only three compartments so I wasn't able to add as much.  The one good thing about these compartments though is that they are deep, so I can double up on items and fit more things in.

Inside the bigger box

As you can see the bigger box has more compartments and they are adjustable as well.  I have several different things that a teacher may need.  You can customize this however you like.  If you know there is something special that the teacher needs or likes to use, then you can throw that in there as well.  I do plan on adding a few more items before I give these to our teachers this year.

Ideas on what to add to the compartments (provided by my Aunt Linda, a retired teacher...thank you!)

• Post-It Notes
• Chapstick
• Nail File
• Nail Clippers
• Stamp pad
• Emergency Sewing Kit
• Safety Pins
• Gift Card (Amazon or iTunes)

One thing to remember when you are making teacher gifts, don't forget the special teachers!  That would include music, art, gym, computer, and whatever else your school might have.  They too deserve a great Christmas gift!

I hope you all enjoyed the first in a series of DIY Christmas gifts.  Let me know in the comments below what you think of this idea.

Leave a Comment Christmas, crafts, diy, gifts, holidays, homemade, teacher