Child Decorated Burp Cloths

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that burp cloths are one of my favorite baby shower gifts.  They're easy, inexpensive, and they're rarely a "duplicate" gift...at least not at the showers I go to.

So we came up with another variation...

Firecracker's birth mom is due with a baby girl next month, so I was trying to figure out something that Firecracker could make for her half-sister.

Baby's First Christmas and Expectant Mother Ornaments

I've been to two baby showers in the last week.  (Yeah, our baby is going to have LOTS of friends his age to play with.)

One for a baby that's expected before Christmas in about a week, so he got a Baby's First Christmas Book.

Big Brother Burp Cloths

There's been a baby explosion in our tiny town...so many I've lost count.  Our baby will be toward the tail end of the baby boom, but we're happy he/she will have such good company.  Lots of babies also means lots of baby showers to go to.

I like to experiment with different gifts, just to keep the crafting interesting, but always seem to keep coming back to burp cloths.  They're just so practical, are so easy to make, and it's never a duplicate gift.

This time I was making some burp cloths for a baby girl with 4 older siblings, all of whom will be old enough to help out burping and doing other things for her.  I wanted to make something girly...but would also work well for when the big brothers are helping out.

You might remember the big sister burp cloths I made a while ago for my sister's oldest when the youngest was born.  I thought it was time to come up with something for Big Brothers and came up with some Big Brother Burpers.

Burp Cloth Cupcakes: Tutorial

A few weeks ago, I went to a friend's baby shower.  Even though I had plenty of warning, the day came, and I hadn't come up with a gift.  You can't exactly make a quick trip to Target for a gift around here, so I whipped up my favorite baby shower gift...super easy burp cloths...with a fun twist.
Don't they look almost good enough to eat?

Seriously, burp cloths are one of my favorite gifts because they're so easy...and I've never been to a baby shower where the new mom received more than one or two other burp cloths.  I always feel like they'll be put to good use...and these burp cloths make the BEST nose wipers when baby is no longer spitting up.

Best Boogie Wipers

...or snot rags...or nose wipers...mucus mops...or hankies...whatever you want to call them.

We've been using plenty of them lately.  The kids just got over one cold when Sweet Pea's nose strarted running overtime again.

Big Sister Burp Cloths

One of my sisters just had her third baby and is also a special needs foster mom to Andie whose a teenager.  Andie is bonding with the baby more than anyone expected and loves to help hold her. 

My sister's babies have also all been very spitty, so I told her her I'd make her some burp cloths.  As I was looking through the flannel I had, I thought I'd try an experiment. 

Mini-Tutorial: Burp Clothes Again...another idea

My sister Katie sent me this link at U-Create because she knew I'd just done the burp clothes. It's an idea for turning them into cupcakes for a cuter gift presentation. I figured I better show the results. I just used one burp cloth as shown in the earlier tutorial. It was a bit of a trick to get the folding right, since I wanted to make sure both sides showed at the top. I settled on folding it kind of accordian style. Sorry the flash did such awful things to the picture.

Then I rolled it up and pinned it with regular straight pins.

I didn't have much in the way of trim, but I did have some white lacey-type stuff left over from a dress I did with my daughter...but it didn't even show once it was in the cupcake paper. Sorry it's a little blurry...Boy didn't want to hold still. :)

Mine don't look nearly as cute as the original, so you really should go check them out. My kids thought it was cute though and didn't want to put the "cupcake" down. I might do these plain-Jane style next time I give them to someone...roll them up without the ribbon, put them on cupcake papers, put them on a paperplate and cover with aluminum foil.

We just came across a necklace of Firecracker's that's broken, so I added a couple of those flowers to the top with pins and got this:

Stay-tuned...Firecracker and I are almost done with her Halloween Costume...which cost about $2 to make.

Tutorial: Burp Cloths-The Easiest Baby Shower Gift Ever! - No Measuring Required

The inspiration for these came from some my mom made for my older sister when she had twins a couple years back. It was my favorite, so I decided to try making some. They're easy to mass-produce (especially if you can get past being a perfectionist...it's taken me a while) and there have been very few baby showers I've been to where someone else gave burp clothes. These are also SUPER nose wipers for toddlers. In fact, I like them even better as nose wipers than as burp cloths.


I've tried a couple things for baby shower gifts over the years. I used to get a onesie and cross-stitch something personalized onto it for the mom. Then when we brought Firecracker home, I realized that wasn't such a great gift. For me...I like to give gifts that I feel will be really useful, and even though the onesie was personalized and handmade, it was only one onesie amongst hundreds the recipient would have and use.