Lots of babies have been born in our extended family. We have
3 children who have gifted us with 7 grandchildren. They, along with
friends and relatives, have more or less come to "expect", from me, some
special homemade gifts for the baby. The most requests are for the
burp pads. Colorful receiving blankets make a nice Baby Shower gift.
The BackSeat BabyArt is a unique gift that I made for the first time for
our 7th grandchild, born in January 2000.
Burp Pads come in mighty handy to throw over your shoulder,
*before* you pick up the baby! They make nice dust cloths when you
no longer need that shoulder protection. When I make burp pads, I usually
make about 6 or 8 at a time.
First, make a paper pattern -
cut paper 16½" wide x 8" high.
Fold paper in half so it measures 8¼" wide x 8" high.
Draw half of neckline on paper pattern, using neckline
template.
Your paper pattern should look like the graphic to right.
Cut the neckline on the drawn line.
Unfold the paper pattern and it should look like graphic to right.
Fabric requirements for 1 Burp Pad -- Pre-wash & dryer-dry
all fabrics before cutting
Backing -- Solid color flannel -- 16½" x 8"
( you can cut 5 backs from ½ yard of 45"w flannel)
Face -- Pretty printed flannel -- 16½" x 8"
(you can cut 2 faces from ¼ yard of 45"w flannel)
Quilt batting (I use low-loft) -- 18" x 9"
Construction
Lay the paper pattern on the wrong side of the 16½" x 8" of the "solid"
flannel. Line up the paper pattern and draw the "neckline cutout" with
a pencil or other marking tool. Do not cut on this drawn line, you will be
using this drawn line as a guide for seam allowance.
Place the 18" x 9" piece of quilt batting down on flat surface. Place
the 16½" x 8" piece of "pretty flannel" right side up on quilt batting.
Place the 16½" x 8" solid color flannel, wrong side up on "pretty
flannel". Put a few pins, here and there, to hold the 3 layers together.
All corners will be rounded. You could draw a "roundness" to all corners
with a pencil before sewing, but why bother? Just round them as you
sew.
Using a walking foot on your sewing machine, sew all layers together, using
a ¼' seam allowance. Sew all around the perimeter of the burp pad, rounding
the corners as you come to them. Be sure to leave an opening of
about 3" for turning. Backstitch at beginning and end of sewing.
On my sewing machine, I have the edge of my walking foot at the edge of the
fabric, then position my needle to be sewing ¼" away from the edge of
fabric and ¼" away from pencil-drawn neck edge.
After sewing all around, trim away the excess, leaving ¼" seam
allowance.
Turn right side out.
Push out all rounded corners.
Working with, and manipulating with your fingers, go all around the perimeter
of the burp pad and pin it into place so that the seamline lies on the edge
of the burp pad. I don't even bother sewing the opening closed. I
start topstitching right close to the edge where the opening is and when
those 3" are sewn closed, I then walk my needle over to be about ¼"
from edge and topstitch all around. I make a second row of topstitching
¼" away from the first row of topstitching.
One Burp Pad done!
The pretty flannel goes on your shoulder. The solid flannel touches the baby's
face. Solid flannel is usually softer than pretty printed flannel against
a baby's face. And the pretty flannel will cling to your shoulder...most
of the time!
Living in South Florida, we don't have much need for heavy, warm receiving
blankets. My favorite kind of receiving blanket to make for South Florida
babies is made using 100% cotton knit fabric. You know, like an
old, comfortable tee-shirt. But, when our grandson Brian was born in
Jan. 2000, I was so glad that I had made some single layer flannel
receiving blankets and some double layer receiving blankets and a sweatshirt
fabric receiving blanket, cuz we had a lingering cold snap. He
was layered with a few receiving blankets on some of those unusually cold
days!
Knit receiving blankets
Knit fabric generally comes 60+" wide. So, I buy 1 yard, to allow for
shrinkage, cuz believe me, 100% cotton knit fabric does shrink. Pre-wash
and dryer-dry your yardage before cutting. Trim off the selvedges.
Cut fabric in half. You will get 2 pieces that are about 30" x 30".
You could square up the fabric pieces, or you can just leave them as
is. You will want rounded corners on the receiving blanket. I
use a plate as a guide to mark the rounded corners, before serging. I
use a white quilting pencil to mark corners and then serge on the mark.
I serge all around the knit blanket, using 3 threads in serger and normal
serge stitch (not rolled edge). You can use threads that match the
knit fabric or use contrasting threads. That gives a real nice edge,
but I have found that if I then take that serged edge and zig-zag on top
of it, I get a lacey-look to the edge.
Scan of "lacey edge"
Knit edge -- serged
ZigZag over top of serging--
ZZ width 4.0
ZZ length 2.5
using NewHome 8000
Zig into the fabric
Zag off of the fabric
Or sew lace to the fabric Scan of edge with lace yardage applied to flannel
Flannel edge -- serged
Place lace on top of edge, having lace about ¼" in from edge.
Triple ZigZag stitch lace to flannel
ZZ width 3.0
ZZ length 3
using NewHome 8000
Zig off of lace
Zag into lace
Or bind the edge Scan of binding applied to sweatshirt fabric
Cut bias binding 2¼" wide
Press binding through 1" bias tape maker
Press in half
Slip edge of sweatshirt fabric into binding
ZigZag bias binding to sweatshirt fabric
ZZ width 1.5
ZZ length 2.5
using NewHome 8000
Zig into sweatshirt fabric
Zag into binding
100% cotton knit fabrics are so very comfortable-feeling. They come
in so many wonderful colors. Brian looked like a jewel in all his
jewel-toned colors of royal blue and teal receiving blankets! And when
he was layered with many blankets, he looked just like a flower! A
very bright flower, at that!
Sometimes, I wish I lived in the northern climates, so that I could make
receiving blankets out of that wonderful Polar Fleece. I would hand-stitch
a blanket stitch around the blanket, using a crochet thread. But, those
moments are fleeting, cuz I have lived in Wisconsin and I really don't like
the winters there!
When riding in a car, the safest place for a new baby to be is in his/her
car seat, in the back seat, facing the rear of the vehicle. What does
baby have to look at? A boring back of the car's back seat!
I thought that little Brian should have something nicer to look at.
So, I made him some BackSeat BabyArt which hangs on the car's back seat.
They say the first colors that a baby can see are black, white and red.
I threw in a touch of yellow to brighten it up.
19" x 19" approx. (finished)
Squares - 2"
Hearts - 4"
Pinwheels - 4"
Red border - ½"
Black border - 1½"
-------
Note -- I used a floral fabric with black background
for the black border
You could substitute any other 4" blocks for the heart & pinwheel blocks.
Fabric needed: no allowances made for re-cuts or mistakes. Preshrink fabric before cutting.
Black - 8¼" x 20"
Red - 15½" x 8"
White - 8¼" x 20"
Yellow - 5" x 5"
Backing -- 19½" x 19½" either cotton or flannel (flannel will cling
to car's fabric-upholstered seat back)
Did not use quilt batting in this quilt.
All seams ¼", unless otherwise noted.
Construction:Pinwheel block, need 2
Cut
Cut
Yields
Sew
Sew
Red
4 squares@ 2 7/8"
Cut squares diagonally
8
Half-Square Triangles
White
2 squares @ 3¼"
Cut squares
diagonally, twice
8
Quarter-Square Triangles
Black
2 squares @ 3¼"
Cut squares
diagonally, twice
8
Quarter-Square Triangles
Need 8
Pinwheel units
Take
4 Pinwheel units
Rotate Pinwheel units.
Sew them together...
to make a Pinwheel block.
EQ users -- Block library, PaperPiecing, Holiday Foundations, Heart
Print Foundation Pattern --
Options - w 4" x h 4", seam allowance .25, print numbering, print as many
as fit (2 will fit), mirror
Construction: Center
Cut
2½" squares
Black
17 squares
Yellow
4 squares
White
12 squares
Sew
need 4
black/yellow units
Sew
pinwheel>black/yellow>heart
Sew
blk>yell>blk>yell>blk
Sew
heart>black/yellow>pinwheel
Sew
=
Sew
wh>blk>wh>blk>wh
wh>blk>wh>blk>wh
=
Sew
blk>wh>blk>wh>blk>wh>blk
need 2 sides
=
Center
Construction: Borders
Length of your border strips might not be exactly as the following.
Be sure and measure your center to determine the length of strips that
you will need for top, bottom and sides.
Cut twoRED strips, 1" wide x
14½" and sew to top & bottom of Center.
Cut twoRED strips, 1" wide x
15½" and sew to sides of Center.
Cut twoBLACK strips, 2" wide x 15½" and sew to top &
bottom.
Cut twoBLACK strips, 2" wide x 19 ½" and sew to sides.
Finishing the quilt
I did not use any quilt batting in this quilt.
To sew the quilt face to the backing, I used a method described on another
of my webpages -- Cottage on Log
Cabin
You could also place the quilt face and backing, right sides together and
sew around the perimeter of quilt, leaving an opening, in the perimeter,
for turning.
After turning the quilt right side out, make sure all corners are poked out.
Sew opening closed. Working fingers at edge, manipulate edge so that
backing does not show to front, at edges of quilt. Using straight pins, pin
around perimeter, about 1½" apart, while manipulating edges. Sew
around perimeter, about ½" from edge.
Pin quilt, through all layers, here and there, to hold layers together.
Stitch-in-the-ditch around the 4" blocks and around borders.
Lay the BackSeat BabyArt over car's back seat.
Does Brian like his BackSeat BabyArt? Well, he looks at it. His
eyes wander all over the "art", but not for long, cuz he usually dozes off
in the car, after a couple of blocks' drive!
