Celebrate BABY—TUTORIAL: Burp Cloth Gift Sets

A tutorial for burp cloths?
When there are a million out in blog land?
Okay, at least a thousand.
Well, every person adds their own spin on it.
And you know, before I got into blogging I had a small etsy business called Joon Bug Baby where I sold blankets, burp cloths, simple baby items and I blogged about it on the side. Over time however, I grew to love the blogging more and the mass producing less.
And that’s how MADE came to be.

So.
When I was making and selling, these are the burp cloth sets I created.
Easy to make and fast to sell.
The cloths on their own are wonderful; I love using them with Clara. But when giving them as a gift or selling in a shop, it’s all about the packaging. Take an extra 5 minutes to personalize your name around the little bundle.
Let’s get started!
FABRIC Choices:
There are various fabrics to use for burp cloths. Mostly, you need something that’ll sop up the baby spit-up…cause if you’ve had a child that’s a spitter, you know how annoying that can be—especially when it ends up on your clothes as well.

Some people prefer store-bought cloth diapers as the backing for burp cloths because they’re super absorbent. I prefer this soft white chenille (purchased at Joann) because it’s soft and well, cute. I went with a cloth size of 10×18 inches, cause that means you can cut 12 cloths from 1 yard of 60 inch wide chenille fabric. Ding!

For the top fabric, go for cute cottons, silk, or flannels that coordinate with each other (not necessarily matchy-matchy, just cute). If the top fabric is rather thin, add an extra layer of white cotton fabric in the middle of the cloth for more absorbency.

I fell in love with the Michael Miller dot fabrics on the left and bought yards of each color. They became the basis of my burp cloth sets when running my shop. And I always threw a silky cloth in each set since they become super soft with washing and just look classy.
Okay, not rocket science here.

Cut 10×18 rectangles. Put right sides of the fabric together and pin (if you’re adding an extra layer of fabric to make it more absorbent, add that on the very top). Add a side label if you have them (read about my labels HERE). Sew around the edges, leaving an opening at the top.
Then trim the corners, turn the cloth right-side out, and pin the opening closed. Sew the opening closed by sewing a topstitch all the way around the cloth, about 1/4 inch from the edge of the cloth.
Finally, sew 2 lines on the top of the cloth, breaking it into 3rds. This just makes the cloth stay together nicely and helps it fold easily.
There you go.
Done!
To add embellishments on top, cut a double layer of knit fabric, pin to your finished cloth (in this case, a silver silk cloth), and sew in place. As you go around the curved hearts, periodically stop sewing, lift your presser foot, and allow the fabric to relax and bounce back.

And ALWAYS use a lint roller to wipe off stray strings before gifting or selling your goods.
Now let’s make the snazzy ribbon for the top.
Here’s what you do:
If you don’t have a personalized label for the top (read about my labels HERE), just leave it plain, or sew a patch on the top, a small scrap of fabric with a stamp on the top, whatever!

Fold and stack your burp cloths in sets of 3, wrap the ribbon around to measure the distance (make the ribbon a bit tighter than you think it should be so it’s nice and snug around the cloths), then sew it closed and slip it back around your cloths.
Simple stylin burp cloths ready to go!
At our house, we need about 6-8 cloths on-hand since Clara is a daily spitter.
But gifting a set of 3 to a friend is a wonderful amount.
And since they’re so easy to make, whip-up a huge ole stack and you’re ready for any baby shower.
Check out the Celebrate BABY archives HERE.