Tutorial: Burp Cloths....and GIVEAWAY

Burp cloths are about the easiest homemade baby gift ever. Simply take a piece of fabric and stitch it on top of a cloth diaper and you're done! Here's my method:

I prefer to have the fabric piece running across one end, leaving the super absorbent core down the middle uncovered and ready to catch the worst of messes.

To get started, you'll need some cloth diapers, Prefold 3-ply or 6-ply (make sure they are the PREFOLD.) Prewash because these babies shrink a lot.


After your burp cloths have been washed and dried, iron a few to make them nice and crisp. Measure the width. (Gerber does not make these things anywhere near perfect. Some will be drastically different sizes, so try to use two that have a similar width. Also the bottom edge may be very uneven. If so, try the other end of the cloth and use whichever is the straightest.)

Now we are going to make a cardboard template. Cereal boxes work great! It will be the same width as you measured from your burp cloth and 3.5" tall.

Next we will determine the measurement for the fabric pieces to top the burp cloth with. Everyone's burp cloths will be such different sizes, I am going to walk you through using your width measurement taken and adding a seam allowance. Take the measurement you got for your burp cloth width and add approximately 3/4"-1" to your width measurement (giving you a generous 3/8" seam allowance for each end.) I like to make my decorative fabric about 3.5" tall, so we'll again be adding 3/4"-1" for the seam allowance (giving a 3/8" for each side.) My measurements ended up being 14" x 4.5".

Once you have your fabric cut out, place it face down on your ironing board and lay your cardboard template on top, centering it.

Hold your template steady while folding the edge of the fabric over the template and ironing it in place. Do this for each side.

Take the cardboard out and press the fabric one last time to give the edge a good crisp fold.

Lay the piece of fabric on top of your burp cloth (right side up) about 1.5" from the bottom edge. You could line it right up on the bottom edge if your burp cloth is really straight. Most are not, so I find it best to put it slightly above the bottom, just high enough that your straight edge of the fabric wont emphasize the uneven bottom seam of the burp cloth.

At this point you may need to adjust the sides, taking the fold in more or letting it out, to match the sides of the burp cloth. Now just pin and stitch all the way around the edge of the fabric about 1/8" from the edge. ( I like to use monofilament (clear) thread, but you can also use any coordinating thread color.)

And you're done! Now just make a matching one!
These can be embellished in so many different ways, like adding ribbon or ric rac to the top or bottom edge of the fabric, or both. Or try placing your fabric along the bottom edge of the burp cloth and adding ribbon loops giving the baby a little entertainment while keeping the burp cloth close at hand to catch any surprise spit-ups!


These make such great baby shower gifts. A great way to have a little style while carrying around a spit rag!

GIVEAWAY!!!
Just leave a comment to enter to win the set of burp cloths seen below! Extra entry if you blog, tweet, or whatever about this post (just leave an additional comment.) Giveaway will end Sunday Nov. 7th at midnight CST.

Appliqued Onesie

I've got soo many white onesies from when my first son was a baby and have decided to spiff them up a bit for baby #2. Appliqued onesies are so easy and cute. Here's a little tutorial for you on how I make them. (Im sure that there are about a thousand other ways to do it though.)

To start out, you'll need:
a onesie (dont be afraid to use a colored one)
a fabric cut-out to use for the applique (just a rough cut for now)
Wonder Under
light-weight iron-on interfacing



Take your rough cut applique piece and place it face down on the paper side of your Wonder Under. Trace around your shape. I like to use a sharpie, but pretty much any marking device would work. (Dont worry about getting ink along the edge of your applique since the edges will be getting trimmed.)


Cut out the shape you just drew on the Wonder Under, being sure to cut just inside of the lines (so there isnt any extra hanging over when we apply it to the fabric.)

Iron the rough side of the Wonder Under to the wrong side of the fabric applique piece using the directions listed on the Wonder Under. I usually just simplify it and hold the iron on the piece for about 10 seconds.

While the fabric is still a little warm, peel off the paper backing. (Sometimes the paper can be a bit tricky to get off. Try another quick iron to warm it up if you're having trouble.) Now you can trim down the edges of the fabric to exactly how you'd like your final applique to look.

Iron the applique piece to the front of the onesie. (A lot of people make the mistake of placing it too low and it ends up on the belly of the baby. I'd recommend putting it pretty close up to the neck line.) Technically you could be done at this point if you are in a super hurry. Wonder Under claims that you do not need to sew around the edge to anchor it down. I've never tested out that claim though.


Turn the onesie inside out. Cut a piece of interfacing that will cover the back side of the applique and reach 1/2" past all edges of the piece. This will stabilize the knit fabric when you sew it, so it wont pucker or pull.

This picture is really hard to see, but it's the onesie inside out. You can see the applique showing through from the front and a piece of interfacing has been ironed on.)

Now just flip the onesie back to right side out and stitch around the applique, approximately 1/8" from the edge, using matching thread or even clear thread (that's what I used on this one.)

And you're done! Now go make another!

There are so many great fabrics that you could use as cut-outs for the applique. This is also a great way to save a stained onesie from the trash! Or you could even place a new applique over an old printed store bought onesie that you are just plain tired of.

A friend of mine had a baby shower recently, and they actually made appliqued onesies at the shower! I thought that was such a genius idea. The hostess had some fabrics ready for the guests to choose from to use as their applique and they each just ironed their creation on to a onesie. Super quick and easy, and so cute! If the hostess is as neurotic as I am, she could go back later and stitch each one to make sure it's nice and anchored down.

All Star Mini Quilt

I had a bunch of long skinny strips leftover from my other two All Star quilts and wasnt quite sure what to do with all the tiny scraps. Im not very creative when it comes to using my scraps, so I went with the typical mini quilt.

Because it's so "scrappy" it became a little busy for my taste. I usually prefer quilts to have more negative space (i.e. areas of the quilt that give your eye rest or don't demand attention), like using solid borders and sashing. But this was made to be used and is not sentimental, so I don't really mind the busyness.

And I barely had enough to finish! The quilt back and binding had only inches to spare! It measures 18"x 21" approx.

This mini quilt is a little out of the ordinary though. It's the first anything that I've made for my immediate family to keep. No quilts, no baby bibs or burp cloths, no diapers and wipes cases, no nothing.

The plan is for this to be a changing pad for our new little boy arriving in September. Our place is pretty cramped right now and he will be in our room for quite a while. So this pad will be a great place to change diapers without worrying about getting our bed, his bed, or the floor dirty. Although, with little boys and their "accidents" during changing time, we may need a few more of these!

New Products

I've been working on a few new products and am happy to announce that Zanie Zoo will now be carrying Mini Quilts! There are only two up for now, but many more are in the works, along with a few other surprises.
Mini quilts can be used for little girls to play with their dolls and boys for their teddy bears. They can also be used as changing pads for babies, car seat blankets, wall hangings, table toppers and so much more.

All Star Quilt

I am so excited to finally be able to show you guys this quilt. It was a gift for a family member who will soon be having a little boy and I just couldn't ruin the surprise.

(sorry, it was late and pic's arent so great)

This is a disappearing nine patch pattern and is super simple and quick to put together.
I really enjoyed doing the looped quilting. It was my first time (doing it correctly) and it went so fast.These fabrics are all from the All Star collection by Riley Blake. I knew the Mommy loved the orange and blue prints, but when I found out the nursery was a western theme and discovered the new western colorway, I knew these prints would be perfect.

Swaddler and Shoes

It's been crazy busy around here sewing up gifts and custom orders while also trying to juggle my very active 2 year old and a new part time job.

A good friend of mine will be having a little girl in the next few weeks and I've actually been able to finish up her gift before the baby getting here. And she'll need it right away too, because it has been incredible cold here (for Texas anyway.) She doesn't like pink, so I went for a little unconventional but still girlish print for the swaddler.
The pattern for this comes from this book, which has a lot of other great patterns too. Definitely worth having in your collection (you can get it at Joanns using a 40% coupon.)

You can also download the swaddler pattern for free here. (It's an enormously large file size, so dont just click the download link. Right click it and choose "save as".)

I also had to throw in a pair of these adorable little shoes. They are so quick and easy to whip up. They are Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties and the pattern can be found here.

I'm back!....with a GIVEAWAY!

October was a long, hard month for me with going through a couple heartbreaking experiences, plus moving. So to celebrate my return to blogging, sewing, and life as we all know it, I'm offering a giveaway! Yea! It is one of the most popular items from my shop:

Honeycomb Diapers and Wipes Case

(To see the full details of this item, visit the product page in my shop.)

To enter, just leave a comment. But that's not all! For a 2nd entry, become a follower of my blog. And a 3rd, follow me on Twitter. For a 4th entry, subscribe to the blog. And even a 5th, blog about my giveaway, linking back to this post. If you dont want to take advantage of all of these options, you are welcome to pick and choose which ones you'd like to participate in. Just leave a separate comment for each entry letting me know which ones you've completed. Also, you must leave an email address to be contacted at.

The giveaway will close Sunday, Nov 15 at 12pm (CST). So enter quick!

Practice Makes perfect

I am so sorry I have taken forever to get to this. We've had some fun-packed last couple weeks of summer. And I had so much floating around in my head for this post, I didnt know where to start.

First off, to "quilt" your doll quilt in the stippling method I used, you will use a Darning Foot (which is used for all free motion quilting.)

I highly recommend taking a Beginner's Quilting class at your local quilt shop. That's what I did, and I loved it. I learned so much more than I thought there ever was to it, and not to mention had a ton of fun having a "me" day and socializing with all the other quilters there.

The key to learning how to quilt is practice, practice, practice. In the class I took, we prepared a quilt sandwich that was 24"x24" out of scrap batting and two inexpensive pieces of muslin. I think this is a really great way to learn and practice, so I encourage all of you interested in learning to try this out.
Start out by using your walking foot (more on the walking foot to come) to sew straight lines down the center of each side, dividing the 24" square into four 12" sections. Using a walking foot I'd say is the easiest way to quilt, so in class that's what we started with.

To do a grid pattern, use your quilting ruler and fabric marker to draw one line on the fabric to follow while sewing. Sew you first line directly on your marker line. Next just move over however far apart you want your spacing to be (mine is 1" here) and using your first sewn line as a guide, simply stitch the next row. Then just keep going, using the last row sewn as a guide for the next.
I know what you're thinking. You dont have to be perfect for this to turn out well. In fact, it hides mistakes very well. In the picture you can easily pick out my mistakes, but I promise, in real life they are totally hidden. Not to mention that fact that it helps to use matching thread (instead of dark blue thread on white cloth like I did! But you can definitely see it.)

Next up is one of my favorites. Im not sure of the name but it's really fun and super easy. It's all just eye-balled. Just start out at whatever spot you'd like, and using your walking foot, just quilt as if you were sewing straight lines. But instead of holding the fabric still, turn it from side to side to make the lines curvy. And you really have to move it around quite a bit. I cant wait to do this on a really cute kids quilt.The next two sections, we used the Darning foot. In one section we did stippling (looks kinda like puzzle pieces) and the other was loops. I didnt take a close up pic of my stippling because it was hideous, but you can see it in the first picture. The loops were pretty easy, but for reason I really dont care for them too much. I quickly moved on to trying out other things. Can you see the flowers, leaves and ivy, my name, and stars that I did? I was quite proud of my self for it being my first time free motion quilting.
Before trying my hand out again at the stippling, I definitely needed some help. I just couldn't wrap my mind around making a random pattern and still starting and finishing at a designated spot. Using a pen and paper helped immensely! Just some old computer paper and sharpie did the trick for me. It finally clicked in my brain.

(obviously these aren't perfect, but much better than before)

Now it's time to practice again using more scrap fabric and batting. Another big part of free motion quilting is the coordination to move the fabric at the correct speed as you press the peddle to make the needle goes up and down to stitch. You dont want your stitch length to be too long or too short. Now get out there and practice, practice, practice!Amandajean over at Crazy Mom Quilts has another great tutorial on free motion quilting with a video.

Baby shower gift

We had a baby shower for my cousin, and I actually planned well in advance for this one, so I had plenty of time to give a homemade gift. I started out with the intent of make a doll quilt and a couple other matching baby items to go with it.

I tried out a quilt block I hadnt done before. But I didn't realize how large the block actually was, so by the time it all came together, it was a bit larger than a doll quilt. That's ok though. It can be used as a play mat, diapering pad, or baby carrier blanket for the little cutie until she out grows it and can use it on her own dolls. Then I put together the matching bib and ribbon ball with the leftover fabric.
The moment the windmill blocks came together, I knew I had to outline them with my quilting.
I love how on the backing, it had "embossed" windmills and the design from the quilt front is transferred to the back also.
Then to finished it off, I did little loops for the rest of the quilt. Kind of like wind gushes from the windmills.

Doll Quilt Tutorial

Making doll quilts are my favorite way to practice quilting. In this doll quilt, Im trying out the string block. Click here to see my tutorial on how to make the string block.
For the doll quilt, you'll need 4 string blocks. Lay the blocks out, deciding which positioning you like best.
Then sew the top and bottom pieces together using a 1/4" seam. Because of the bulkiness of this type of block, I recommend ironing your seams open. Once that's done, sew the right and left halves together and press the seam open.
Next, we'll add a border. I wanted mine to be 2.5" finished, so I cut my border pieces 3" wide (allowing for a 1/4" on both sides.) For length, measure your blocks. I like to make my borders 1/4" longer than needed, just to make sure it fits.
With the border pieces on the top and bottom, square up the block, cutting off the excess edges on the borders. To do this, line up a long ruler, matching the edge of the string blocks at the top and bottom corners, and using your rotary cutter, trim the border edges

Next we'll need to add the left and right side borders. The width of these will be the same as before, but the length will change. To find the length, simply measure your quilt again, this time including the borders you've just attached (measure from the outside edge of your top border down to the very bottom of your lower border.) Once all the borders are added, square it up again.

Now that all the edges of the blocks have been sewn, you can remove the paper. Be gentle so you dont rip out any seams or damage any fabric. If you used a small stitch length it should come off really easily. If not, then it will just take little bit more time and you'll have to be very careful as to not to not cause any damage. Also, if you went overboard with the glue when making the string block and are having a hard time getting the paper to separate from the fabric strip it was glued to, just dampen the fabric a tiny bit with your finger that's been dipped in water. It wont take much to get the glue to dissolve.After the trauma of removing the paper, press the quilt top again.

Next up, I'll show you how to make the "quilt sandwich" and machine quilt it, then add the binding.