November 9th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Today I thought I’d take a little break from the heaviness of the Revelation judgments and give you a little update on our daily life, along with some sewing/crafting info – it’s been a long time since I did a post like this! ;)

I realized a few days ago that I never updated my blog readers on my bedrest situation. Thank you so much to those who have been praying for us – after two weeks on bedrest and no further problems, my doctor lifted all my restrictions and I haven’t had any problems since! Praise the Lord!

Since then, we’ve been in full baby-prep mode in the Stephens house (I can’t imagine how we would have been ready for #3 if I was on bedrest this whole time!). LB has moved into AG’s room and they are loving their new bunk beds. The crib and changing table have been cleaned up, organized, and prepared. Clothes have been pulled from storage, washed, folded, and put away. Bouncy seats, swings, car seats, bottle warmers, toys, the baby bathtub, and all manner of baby items have been located, washed, and de-funked from their stay in the attic. ;)

My sewing machine has been in high speed the last few days, finishing up some flannel pj’s for the big kids as well as polishing off two more items from my baby to-do list: making a slipcover for the boppy pillow and sewing some new burp cloths.

I’ve never loved our boppy pillow… but to be fair I bought it for $5 at a garage sale and it also came with some toy bars that clip onto it to make a little baby gym, so I can’t complain that I thought it was rather ugly!

After finding this great blog post with patterns and instructions for making a boppy slipcover, I found some flannel on sale for $2.99/yd and bought two yards. An hour or so of work later…

Ta-da! Much better!!

I had about a half a yard of flannel left over, so I decided to sew some much-needed burp cloths. My daughter was one of those babies who made me somewhat of an expert in burp cloths, if you know what I mean. ;) These are so EASY to make and can also be great gifts, so I thought I would give you a little tutorial.

Cut flannel pieces into rectangles – I like my burp cloths to be on the large side, so I cut them into approximately 16″x8″ pieces. [I have often used surplus receiving blankets to make these in the past... we seemed to have WAY more than we needed! They also seem to be easy to find in good condition at consignment stores, which is a cheaper way to get fabric than buying new off the bolt, usually! If you're making baby gifts, you can also purchase receiving blankets that match the bedding they registered for.]

Cut the corners to make them rounded.

I like to make these burp cloths with terry cloth on the back, which makes them both soft and extra absorbent. Again, instead of buying terry cloth off the bolt at the fabric store, I’ve found that the cheapest way to do it is to buy gently used baby towels at the consignment store – as an added plus, the terry on those towels is a finer weave and is nice and soft!

Lay your rectangle on the terry, right sides together, pin, and cut out a matching rectangle.

Sew around the two pieces with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving 4″ or so on one straight side open so you can turn it right side out.

Turn right-side out, fold unsewn edges in to be even with the remainder of the fabric, and top stitch all around about 1/4″ from the edge.

You’re done!

So, for about $6 of flannel, plus some terry cloth that I already had on hand, I ended up with a new boppy cover and 7 great burp cloths! Not too shabby!

But, the side effect of a day of sewing is that the house now looks like this…

Oh, well.

So, that’s what’s new with us… what’s new with you? :)