Sometimes I think I want to get back into sewing, quilting, etc. just for an excuse to walk through fabric stores. The project below, made for my niece/nephew-to-be, was my very first trip into the nursery section of fabrics. The softness of the fabric and the plethora of adorable prints was incredible-- I'm looking forward to having more excuses to buy baby fabrics. (Read: no "excuses" in the form of new additions to our own family for at least a few more years!!) (Knock on wood-- and knock again!!)
Baby Bibs (aka, great, homemade baby shower gifts)
Thin quilt batting material
1-2 coordinating fabrics (for front and back of bib, can be same print, if you want)
coordinating binding
coordinating thread
*an alternative is to just by the "pre-quilted" material and jump straight to attaching the binding*
First, you need to set the mood (really, this is important). Get out all of your sewing stuff-- if you're like me, you're bound to make enough mistakes to need all the tools you own to recover your project. I recommend turning on public radio or putting on a classic 80's movie (trust me, the soundtrack alone will keep you motivated). Get some salty snacks out, too, cause this is going to take awhile. Oh, and if you don't have your own garden, find out if you can borrow freshly cut flowers from someone else (thanks mom!) because fragrant flowers never hurt.
Next, cut out a pattern-bib from heavy paper or thinner cardboard. Using your pattern, trace and cut the bib from the batting material and each fabric (or two from one fabric, if the front and back are the same). (Newborn? Maybe a little smaller.)
"Build" the bib the way you would a quilt, with right side of fabrics facing out and the batting in the middle of the sandwich.
Pin the 3 pieces securely in place, with pins along the sides and throughout the middle of the bib.
Begin sewing by basting (like really long stitches) along the top and neckline of the bib.
Change your stitch length from baste stitching to 12 (I'm not sure what all that means, other than that the stitches are closer together and therefore stronger). Start, slowly, stitching an outline around the fabric pattern, beginning at the top of the bib and removing pins only as you need to. If you're in a hurry, you can use any common quilting line technique such as diagonal lines, crossed lines, waves, etc.
Move your quilting pattern along, from top to bottom of the bib. These pictures show the progression from the backside of the bib, as it's easier to see the steps.
When you're done with the quilting part, double-check that you've got a baste stitch around the outside of the entire bib. Trim away any edges that need cleaning up along the outside of the bib.
Grab your binding. Starting with the back side of the bib, at the top of one side of the neckline, unfold the binding such that the edges of the binding and back of bib line up. (Pin this all along the edge of the back of the bib, if you are shooting for perfection-- otherwise, fire up that sewing machine and just see what happens.) Stitch along the first fold in the binding, all the way around the bib. Trim off the binding when you come back around to the neckline.
Now fold the binding around to the front of the bib and stitch the top of the binding in place.
Now you'll follow the same procedure for the neckline. Before sewing, you'll need to determine how long of bib tie strings you want. The binding extends from both sides of the bib neckline to form the tie strings.
Warning, it was a little frustrating to follow the curve of the neckline without pins. I caved and went for the pins.
Even with pins, it wasn't all that pretty.
Once the neckline of the bib is "binded", you can stitch binding that is the bib tie strings closed, like this.
And you're finished!
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