Easy to Sew Baby Bibs

Bibs can be a fun baby gift to make because they’re quick and easy to sew up, don’t require a lot of fabric and can be decorated in so many different ways (which means a little playtime for you, the maker).

Keep in mind when choosing fabric or thinking of how to embellish it that a bib, in order to be useful, needs to be absorbent. Fabrics like cotton, linen, flannel, terrycloth are all good choices. Old T-shirts (a favorite band or team of the parents perhaps?) would also make a good bib (look for 100% cotton shirts)

Embellishment ideas:

• Stencil with fabric paint words or a design
• Embroidery a little motif
• Block print fabric and turn it into a bib
• Try out all those fancy decorative stitches on your machine to make stripes or waves across the bib
• Piece together the scraps from the quilt you made for the baby
• Tie-dye, ice-dye or batik the fabric
• Add a little decorative ribbon or trim on top or insert a lace ruffle in the seams (A little RBG action)
• And although it isn’t embellishing I put it here; you can quilt the bib.

Supplies Needed

• Bib Pattern (free download) or sketch your own
• A total of a half yard of fabric (or a little less)
• 3/4 to 1 inch of sew-on velcro (aka hook and loop tape) OR one snap either a sew-on or a set-in snap of a good strong size.
• Optional: thin cotton batting OR fusible batting
• Optional but needed if your fabric is thin or you are doing any decorative stitching: mid to lightweight interfacing.

Note: Velcro makes it super easy to put the bib on a squirming child however, as they get stronger they can sometimes, yank that bib off themselves by simply pulling down hard enough on it. Snaps are stronger but I really dislike sewing them on. Set-in snaps (that I set at least) seem to pop off the fabric after a while. So your choice which closure to use. You could even use a button.

Some notes about fabric:
1. Use absorbent fabric like cotton or linen.
2. The front and back can be cut from different fabrics (scrap busting).
3. The front and/or back can be pieced from different fabrics. If so, sew the pieces together first and then cut out the pattern from the pieced fabric.
4. If using terry cloth that has one smooth side and one loopy side, decide which side you want showing and flip the pattern right side up or upside down accordingly.
5. If the front and back are both thinner fabrics you may want to insert a thin layer of cotton batting in between.
6. If you plan on embroidering or stitching anything on to the front apply fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the front piece for strength and stability before stitching.

Let’s Get Started

Here is the pattern I used. (Print it out at actual size. It is three pieces of paper. Line up the black triangles on one sheet to the triangles on another sheet to form little diamond shapes.)

You’ll need to cut out a front and a back and possibly a thin layer of batting or fusible interfacing (see Some Notes About Fabric above). And that is all you need to cut.

Now is the time to embellish the front if you’re gonna. Have fun.

Sewing
If you are using batting between the front and back lay the batting piece on top of the wrong side of the front or back piece (it doesn’t matter which) and baste the two layers together, all the way around, at 1/4″ in from the edge.

If you’re using fusible batting fuse it onto the backside of the back piece. If you cut it out so it only fuses to the backside of the front piece that’s ok. Do what you have to do to make it work.

(Tip: Fusibles can sometimes make puckers on the front side of the fabric you fused it to. Try to fuse anything to fabric that is somewhat hidden when the project is done)

Lay the front and the back pieces right sides together lining up all the edges. Pin and when you do, put two pins close together approximately where the notches on the pattern are. (The notches look like capital “T”s and are on the far right side).

The two pins close together will remind you to not sew here (between them). You need to leave a few inches open in order to pull the bib right side out.

Starting at the lower double pin, sew all the way around with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Stop at the other set of pins or about 4″ from where you started sewing.

Cut notches into the seam allowance at the curves. It’s only a quarter-inch seam allowance so there is no need to trim the batting from the seam allowance.

Reach into the opening and turn the bib right side out. Press the bib with a hot iron so the seam lands right on the edge. Meaning the front doesn’t roll to the back and the back doesn’t roll to the front. You have to manipulate the fabric by rolling it between your fingers to do this. Spraying the fabric with a little water first helps.

Fold the seam allowance of the opening down into the opening. This is a little hard with only a quarter-inch to play with but it doesn’t have to be exact. Press.

Stitch all the way around the bib close to the edge. You want to catch that 1/4″, folded in, seam allowance at the opening so sew somewhere between falling off the edge and a 1/4″ – try 1/8″.

If you want to add any topstitching or quilting now is the time to do that.

The Fastener
Snap: The snap placement is marked on the pattern. However, it’s always a good idea to secure one half of the snap on (either half) and then overlap the area to be snapped to get a precise location for the second half of the snap.

Put the ball half on the extension and the socket half on the lower part.

Velcro: To see where the velcro will be placed overlap the two extensions, the long extension on top of the lower, shorter extension. Mark with pins or chalk, where the overlap is.

With the “borders” marked pin the loop (soft) side on the lower part of the bib front and the hook (scratchy) side of the velcro on the backside of the upper extension (the backside of the bib).

You may need to trim the velcro tape down to have it fit in the space better.

Sew the velcro down all the way around the edges.

You could also use a button to close the bib.

Ok, that’s it. It really was that simple.
Great work, you!