DIY: Fabric Embellished Burp Cloths

I made 20 of these fabric-embellished burp cloths while I was pregnant, and I use them constantly!  My son is a MAJOR spitter-upper, so we go through 10-12 burp cloths EVERY day!  These were much more cost effective than buying store-bought burp cloths (I think they cost about $2 each to make, depending on the cost of your fabric), and because they are made from cloth diapers, they are also super absorbent! 

I would call my sewing skills "beginner"; if you own (or have access to) a sewing machine and can sew a (reasonably) straight line, you can make these burp cloths!  They're great to make in big quantities; once you get in a rhythm, you can churn out a bunch of these in one afternoon!

Supplies (to make 10 burp cloths):

10 Gerber 6-ply prefold cloth diapers
4 fabric fat quarters (22" x 18"), cut into 3 pieces each (22" x 6")
Coordinating thread (I used white thread for all of the burp cloths so I wouldn't have to change it)
Pins (I used 6 pins to pin the fabric to the cloth diaper while sewing)
Scissors
Spray starch
Sewing machine
Iron
Ironing board
Scrap cardboard, cut to 17" x 4.75" (to use as a template for ironing a seam allowance around the fabric)


I followed this tutorial to make these burp cloths; I won't bother to recreate the steps since this tutorial is so thorough and easy to follow!  The only things I did differently were: 1) I didn't prewash my fabric or cloth diapers; and 2) I used spray starch when ironing the seams to make a crisp edge.

I used Gerber 6-ply prefold cloth diapers, which I found at Target.  (They also sell them at Buy Buy Baby but they are more expensive there).  I got my fabric fat quarters at Joann's (they have a huge selection and they are cheap, especially if you catch them during a sale!)  Each fat quarter was enough fabric for 3 burp cloths, so I needed 7 fat quarters to make 20 burp cloths.

Weekly Recap

My 12 weeks of maternity leave is winding down (DON'T MAKE ME CRY!!!), so I'm trying to focus on all of the fun moments!

Blair was out of town in San Francisco for 3 nights last week for work, so my parents came in town to keep me company and help with the baby.

Granna had to make a trip to Buy Buy Baby to buy more toys for Carter...the first grandchild is spoiled rotten!

Uncle John decided Carter needed to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube....Carter was not interested.

We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday!

I made this Andes Mint Chocolate Cake for my dad's birthday which may have been my favorite dessert ever.

My mom succeeded in getting Carter to smile at her (it only took hours of coaxing).

We did lots of fun stuff over the weekend, but somehow I completely failed to take any photos.  On Friday we had our friends Lauren and Drew, who recently moved back to Dallas from Dublin, over for dinner - so fun!  We spent Saturday morning volunteering at church, then headed to Ft. Worth to watch the A&M game with our college friends.  

On Sunday, we went to church and left Carter in the church nursery for the first time.  I may or may not have cried during the entire church service AND gone to check on him between church and Sunday School.  This does not bode well for how I will handle returning to work.

On Tuesday I took this little man on a 5-mile walk ending at Starbucks to enjoy a PSL in the gorgeous 64-degree weather!

I also failed to take photos of fun Tuesday night activities - Carter and I attended the First Time Mom and Baby class at church, followed by our church's first dinner/speaker series for moms.  The theme was "Overwhelmed", and I loved how real everyone was about the tough parts of being a mom.

Even though I already have a bunch of mom friends, I'm trying to branch out and meet new people.  In addition to these two mom events on Tuesday night, I also signed up for our church's new Working Moms Circle which meets twice a month and our neighborhood HOA mom's group.  Hopefully I will meet some new friends who want to hang out on Wednesdays or Friday afternoons when I'm not working!

Navy & Green Baby Shower

Last weekend, I helped host a baby shower for Erin, a good friend of ours from college who is expecting her first baby boy in November!  Her nursery colors are navy blue and bright green (like mine!), so we used those colors for the theme of her baby shower.  

We held the shower at 11 AM and served brunch, because who doesn't love brunch food?!  To keep it simple and low stress, we served a combination of store-bought and homemade items.  

The menu included:

Mini chicken and waffles with syrup (Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and mini frozen waffles)

Fresh fruit

Pigs in a blanket and mini quiches

Donut hole skewers

Peanut butter and pretzel truffles, chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, and oatmeal cookies

A juice-based punch served in mason jars with striped paper straws

A coffee bar with a variety of flavored creamers

Instead of a guest sign-in sheet, we asked each guest to self-address an envelope so that the new mom would have pre-addressed envelopes for her thank you notes.  

Each guest also filled out a card with their wishes for baby Jake.

Before Erin opened gifts, we passed out bingo cards; each guest filled out the squares of the bingo card with baby gifts they thought Erin would receive. The first guest to get a bingo based on the gifts Erin got won a Godiva chocolate gift basket.

We had such a great time celebrating baby Jake and can't wait for his arrival!