Quick and Easy DIY Burp Cloths

or as Grace calls them, "bur clots." (a recent improvement on burm clots)

Disclaimer: this isn't actually making burp cloths, just personalizing them.

When I was pregnant with Grace, I picked up a package of prefold diapers to use as burp cloths for her. We were gifted with some actual ones, but I pretty much never used them, since they were little more than a tiny strip of fabric laying over my shoulder- usually not big enough for any spitup messes. They quickly became her form of a security blanket- and still are today, which means I find them all over the house and never can tell which ones are fresh from the laundry, which have been on the floor by the shoes, and which ones have been next to her potty chair in the bathroom (gross!). I knew that with another baby on the way, we would need to do something to differentiate between them so I could know quickly which were clean.

And so, after digging out some scraps and buying a few inches of fabric from Wal-Mart, my mom and I came up with these cute little numbers:

I realize this is simple enough that it barely warrants a tutorial, but I'll share what we did anyway, because I'm in a generous sort of mood.

First, to prevent awkward pulling, we washed the refolds/burp cloths to get any shrinking out of the way. It would probably be a good idea to wash the fabric, too. When choosing fabrics, lightweight (flannel, cotton prints) will work best.

We used strips 4 inches wide, folded in 1/2 inch on both sides,

then folded in half over the end of the cloth and pinned into place.

like so

Then, it was a basic stitch down each side (length-wise) and zig-zag stitches on the shorter ends to hold them in place.

Boom. Quick, easy, cute, and makes my life simpler, which I'm always a fan of. Once baby comes and we know the gender, we'll probably do a few more (we didn't use all the cloths I had) to make them a bit more gender-specific.

These would also be cute as a baby gift, so any friends who may be pregnant soon (I'm looking at you, Kristi) can just pretend to be surprised when they open this gift from me.