Chic Burp Cloths: Repurposing Prefolds & Receiving Blankets

Our apologies for the lack of blog posts these days.  It seems as the end of the year and holidays approach, we have less time to spare (especially when one child stops napping…)  But we have been busy using our creativity as stress relief.

When you have babies and children, things tend to accumulate (especially receiving blankets).  When you have your second child in a reasonable time span after the first, you also have the luxury to reuse all the gear from the first child.  This not only saves money, but it also limits the amount of “stuff” that builds up around your home.  Although I don’t mind the accumulation as I love shopping for my little ones!  So while I love to get hand-me-downs from relatives and friends, I also want to be able to get some new goodies for my second child (like Gnon or Wubbanub!).

But other things, like burp cloths and diaper changing mats, seem expensive and unnecessary (and a bit boring looking!)  So what have I been on the hunt for lately?

DIY & Repurposing.  Haven’t heard of it before?  Well it’s defined as:

re·pur·pose  (r-pûrps)

Project #1

A couple weeks ago at a Mommy & Me group meeting, I saw a mom with the cutest burp cloth!  It looked like a simple prefold with a strip of colored fabric down the middle.  I loved it!  And it seemed like a better solution to the dinky cloth wipes I carry around to wipe up messes.  So…

My Dilemma: Unlike my first child, my daughter is a drooly baby who spits up and dribbles A LOT of milk while breastfeeding
The Stuff: Lots of plain white prefolds and receiving blankets lying around not being used (all washed)
The Solution: Trendy burp cloths!

Now I’m not very good at sewing.  I bought my machine to make cloth wipes out of receiving blankets when I had my son 3 years ago.  After a few projects, the poor machine sat in the guest room closet for quite a long time until I dug it out to try a few DIY projects.  This being one of them.

So after several trial and error attempts, I finally found a technique that works the best in my opinion:

1. So you can see from the picture to the left, I started off with pre-washed prefolds and lots of receiving blankets from my first child.  I took one prefold diaper and a piece of a receiving blanket cut down to size (about 6″ by 18″).
2. I pinned down the sides and tucked everything in nicely.  You can also iron the edges down on the cloth, although my prefolds have been washed so many times that I thought this was unnecessary.
3. I started sewing all the edges around the fabric to secure it to the prefold, removing pins as I went.
4. A variety of burp cloths made out of prefolds from my first child (a boy) and hand-me-down receiving blankets.  And they are so cute!  I chose more girly prints because I wanted them to feel like something new!

After making these, I googled “fancy burp cloths” to provide some more resources and options if you choose to make these yourself as this blog post is not a tutorial.  So here are several sewing tutorials with step-by-step pictures:

• Our Seven Dwarfs
• See Kate Sew
• Fancy Frugal

So good luck and hope you can creatively make use of all the accumulated “stuff” you have lying around, too.

I’m on the hunt for more ideas!