Burp Cloth Tutorial

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The pattern I made up looks a little bit like this. It is similar to Homemade by Jill's pattern but the curve goes in quite a bit more to follow the curve of the neckline and is closer to the top to give more length at the bottom.

First off choose your material. I used three layers for this tutorial. It really doesn't matter too much what you use as long as there is an absorbent layer in the middle (such as hemp or microfibre) and you may want to use flannel for the bottom as it tends to stick to your clothes which will help it not to fall off your shoulder during use! You could even just find an old trifold/prefold cloth nappy, which as you can see in the picture below has 3 parts and the middle part is extra absorbent.


I used an old stretchy skirt for the top layer, but you may want to use a nice soft material so baby is more comfortable.

I also used some ribbon to decorate my burp cloth but obviously this is optional. If you are in a hurry, just leave it off.

If you are putting the ribbon on, do it first as it will make it easier to sew.

I just sewed the top of the ribbon very close to the edge so that it almost had a ruffled effect on the bottom part.

Next put your three layers in this order and pin together:
top layer-fabric with ribbon (right side up)
bottom layer (right side down)
middle layer-absorbent fabric

Sew all three layers together remembering to leave a gap to turn right side out.
Trim the middle absorbent layer back so it's as close to the stitching as you can get it. This will eliminate some of the bulk.
Turn right side out.

Top stitch all around the edges. I used a fancy stitch in a contrasting colour, but a standard straight stitch will do the job just as well.


If you wanted to skip some steps, and you have an overlocker/serger, you can always just put the fabric together as it should be and sew the edges. This would save a lot of time.

And it's finished! Easy as that.