It's a strange thing how a mother's body just tells her instinctively that it's time to get ready for the little one about to arrive. It's comes at different times for everyone I think but when I started having intense BH contractions last week the sirens started going off. It's been so hot and humid outside that being in the garden or outdoors in general is the last thing on my mind. But my hands have been itching to keep busy and sewing has become the craving of late.
I have some blankets left over from when Jack was a baby that didn't really get used. Somehow you develop favorite blankets and the rest lay there unused. So I took a flannel swaddling blanket and turned it into burp cloths. We were in a condo when Jack was a baby so doing a million loads of laundry wasn't all that bad. We are now in a house and the laundry is in the basement, two floors down. I guarantee you laundry is not going to get done as often so I need to triple up on my essentials.
I cut out 7"x16" rectangles from the flannel, stacked them in three layers, used an upside down mini bucket to cut the round corners, made binding from some fat quarters that I had laying around, and sewed them up.
I generally don't care for binding things...or piping things, even though it adds a lot to the cute factor, both are tedious and time consuming. I'll do them, but rarely. Like most things, practice makes perfect and after about 4 of these I started getting the hang of it. Don't look too closely as they are far from perfect but they'll do...they're burp cloths for goodness sakes :)
The ones below were my favorite ones when Jack was a baby but the satin trim took a beating and looked shabby so I took it off and replaced it. These are made of two nice thick layers of a cotton knit. I can't seem to find a knit nearly as thick. I've tried making a reproduction of these with a thinner knit but not with much success.
There are several different methods for making your own binding and for sewing it on. You can get some great tips here and here. I cut mine on the bias since I had curves to deal with and I used my machine - no hand stitching here, hence why they are little less than perfect looking. My two big tips are; be anal when ironing your bias tape strip, the more even and consistent the width the less frustration you'll have later. Second, when placing your binding on, again be anal, make sure it's even on both sides, maybe even a little more on the back side to make sure you catch it as you sew. As much as I hate using pins, I pinned a lot - it saved my sanity. If I was working with only straight edges on my project I wouldn't bother with the pins and binding in general would be much easier but I just had to have those curves. All in all I'm fairly happy how they turned out and glad that I have a cute little stack of burp cloths that cost me nothing. I feel so resourceful! Since I'm in the groove I think I'll try finish off a few more before moving on to my next project...a nursing cover.
It looks great on the pics, you did a great job for tackling bias binding and I think you conquered it!
Mamabee
Posted by: mama bee | July 30, 2010 at 12:04 AM