Flannel Receiving Blanket Burp Cloths

When LMS was a baby who spit up a lot, I cut a couple bath towels into squares and zig-zagged the edges (I didn't have a Serger at the time). They worked quite well, but weren't always the prettiest once the edges started fraying. Once she got past the spit-up stage, they got relegated to the rag bag, and I think there's still a couple around somewhere- I recall using them when I was doing all my painting.

Even though I said I didn't have the time and energy to do any sewing, I did manage to do a few projects lately: some baby legs and some burp cloths. I never got around to making any burp cloths before TLM was born, but I was given several, so I didn't worry about it. TLM doesn't actually spit up that much, so only having a few hasn't been a problem. However, I have a stack of flannel receiving blankets that I wanted to do something useful with. I knew from past experience that they're not actually large enough to swaddle a baby, but I bought some anyway, plus we received some.

If they're not big enough to swaddle the little guy, what else could they be used for? Some burp cloths!

I have some burp cloths that are flannel on both sides and some that are terry on the back side, and I prefer the terry cloth-backed cloths. I had a picture of the stack of flannel receiving blankets, but it's stuck in my external drive that's not currently playing nice with my laptop. There was at least 8 or 9 of them, plus some terry cloth that I bought from JoAnn's to use as backing.

After measuring the flannel blankets and comparing the size of the burp cloths I already had, I decided to cut out 8"x17" rectangles.

This gave me three across, plus a slightly smaller piece across the top. I ended up cutting two pieces that were 8"x10" from that section to make some mini burp cloths.

I cut matching pieces of terry cloth, then sewed them all together. I left a small hole in each to turn them right side out, then I topstitched each cloth, sewing the hole closed as I went. In retrospect, I don't know that I'll topstitch the next batch (whenever I get around to making them). I like the finished look, but it makes them stiffer and less flexible.

end result: 9 large cloths and 4 small ones

The green print is a loose woven fabric that was originally part of a blanket/burp cloth that we found at IKEA back before TLM was born. The monkey and tree prints started life as flannel receiving blankets.

I think they turned out super cute, though they didn't use up nearly enough of my flannel receiving blanket stash :)