FLANNEL BABY BIB

Baby bibs are one of the most important of all baby items, but just because it will inevitably be covered in food and spit up does not mean that they don't have to be as cute as the clothes they are protecting.  Bibs you purchase in the store are usually slightly expensive and plain, so why not make some yourself that are half as expensive and ten times as cute?

What You Need:
*Flannel - 1/2 yard of a print flannel and 1/2 yard of a coordinating solid color (1/2 will be enough for a two bibs & one burp cloth)
*Straight pins
*Matching thread
*Sewing machine
*Snaps

Instructions:
***First, before you do anything, you must pre-wash your flannel fabric. Flannel shrinks ALOT and also frays when you first wash it. This is why you buy more than what you need. One way to avoid too much fraying is to wash the flannel on a gentle cycle and then dry on delicate. You will still see fraying but trust me this is minor compared to what I saw when I accidently washed it on regular settings!

Once your flannel has been washed and dried, iron your fabric so that there are no wrinkles and trim off the frayed pieces.  You should now have two nice ironed pieces of material ready to go.

For the pattern, I drew up mine and transfered it to a large piece of stiff felt. For easy cutting and to make sure that your bib is symmetrical, I made the pattern for half and folded the fabric so that once the material was cut, you unfold it and have a perfectly symmetrical piece of material.

Once you have both pieces (print and solid flannel fabric) cut out, pin them right sides facing together.

Next, sew around the whole bib, leaving a small area in the bottom of the bib open so that you are able to flip the material right side out.

Once you flip the material so that the right sides are facing out, fold and pin the bottom opening closed so that it "flows" with the seam around the rest of the bib.

Sew around the whole bib, making sure that you sew close enough to the edge to catch the material where the opening was. This is where you want to have a matching thread color because this is the seam that you will see. I recommend using the same color as your solid fabric. The thread will be more noticeable on the solid than on the print fabric. The print distracts from thread. The picture below shows the approximate placement of how far from the edge the seam should be.

The final thing you need to do is attach the snap closure at the neck.  Using a snap attaching tool, attach them to the ends of the neck straps. This is the step where you could also attach velcro instead of the snaps. (I like the snaps because my son would always rip the bibs with velcro off and throw them food covered and all onto my floor.)



Now you have a super cute, absorbent bib that will get you a ton of compliments! This is what it should look like when finished!