CraftyBridge: Sweet Baby Bibs: Repost

Every Spring seems to bring a new wave of babies into the lives of my friends, family and coworkers. It’s peculiar, but also a ton of fun. How can you not be smitten by a new bundle of joy; not to mention seeing the awe and bewilderment in the faces of the new mommies and daddies. I can’t explain why, but when someone I love enters into this new stage in their life, I can’t help but swell with pride and joy for them.

Perhaps this is why I love to sew and make baby stuff. Sure, my bibs look dang cute on their kids, but it is my way of giving a piece of my heart to this new child and these new parents as they all grow together as a family. I hand-pick fabrics that I know will speak to these Moms and the future diva/rockstar/football player/ballerina. It’s personal. And that’s why I’m reposting one of my favorite posts: Sweet Baby Bibs. Because I want to encourage you, too, to make something a little more personal. It’s not hard to do and it comes from the heart.

And I’m serious… these babies look so F*ing cute in handmade bibs. I can’t even get over it.

Here are some of my most recent bibs: given to a dear friend and colleague of mine for her first baby, Mia. Keri is one stylish Momma and I can’t wait for this baby to rock these bibs on her hip!

Look for fabric anywhere – fat quarters are perfect – you get exactly 2 bibs out of them!

Yes, that’s gold trim you see there. Do it.

Sweet Baby Bibs:

What you will need:
- Patterned fabric (preferably cotton – washes and wears better)
- Terry cloth by-the-yard (can get expensive- use a coupon or get on sale)
- Biased tape (I bought mine, but you can make your own)
- The Usual Suspects: Sewing machine, scissors, thread, etc.

1. Use a bib pattern to cut out the shape of a bib on your fabric using rotary cutters (if you don’t have rotary cutters, trace the pattern and cut with scissors). You can download a bib pattern easily from Pinterest or trace an old bib or sketch your own. To sketch your own, the easiest way is the fold a piece of paper in half the long way and drawn half a bib along the fold (this way both sides will be symmetrical) . Here, I used my mock-up to trace.

2. Because I’m making more than one bib, I doubled up my fabric and cut two bibs at once. I then did the same for my terry cloth. I bought one yard of terry cloth and cut it into squares to maximize the amount of bibs I could get out of it (I think I got about 12!) (my bibs are 9 inches wide by 13 inches long)

Beware: terry cloth makes a mess – just a warning. It will get annoying. Have a lint roller ready for when your project is done.

3. Topstitch your terry cloth bib and your fabric bib together.

Note: I traced the bib as one piece with a hole for the neck first. Then once I sewed all the edges I cut the middle of the top to separate. It made keeping track of my lines and pieces much easier as I topstitched.

4. Pin your bias tape and sew carefully around the entire edge of the bib.