Hand Towel Bibs

Celeste started eating cereal and baby food about two months ago.  I pulled out my old bibs and they were nasty.  I needed new ones.  I decided to make some awesome hand towel bibs.

When Grant was a baby my Aunt Carol made some bibs out of hand towels.  They were some of my favorite bibs.  My mom and I have since perfected the art of hand towel bibs.  We made three major changes.  One, we added sleeves; two, we made the bibs longer; and third, we added ribbons instead of velcro.

It is really to make a hand towel bib.  You need a hand towel, some ribbon, and ribbed knitted fabric.

1. On one side of the bib you are going to cut a 6 inches into the towel.  Then make a "t" by cutting 1.5 inches on either side of the cut.  This will make the sleeves and neck.  If you have a chubby necked baby you may want to go a little bit bigger than 1.5 inches.  

2.  Fold over the rough edges and sew together.  Leave the neck open. We will sew that next.  I recommend using a zig zag stitch, a surger, or sew over twice.  The terry cloth of the towel has the tendency to fray. 

3.  You are going to take a 10 inch strip of ribbed knit.  The strip will be 2 inches wide and the ribbing run parallel to the 2 inch sides so that the neck will look like a t-shirt neck.  I used an iron on stabilizer because the knit is stretchy and I don't want it to move when I sew it.

4.  Fold the knit in half and pin on to the towel.  Rough edges together.  Use a lot of pins especially around the corners.

5.  Once you have the neck and back edges sewn together fold so the neck is at top.  You are now going to make a small one inch seem on the outside edges to make arm holes.  

6.  You are going to pin 8-10 inches of ribbon on each side of the neck.  I like my ribbons a little longer because I think it is easier to tie.  I also like thiner ribbon verses thick ribbon.

The first bib took me about 40 minutes to make.  Then I decided to make a whole bunch more and I made about 5 bibs in an hour.

Cupcake bib

Owl bib

Pink stripe

Frog bib

Monkey bib

I watch for Target or Wal Mart to have hand towels on clearance.   They often change their coordinated bathroom sets and will have towels for cheap. I didn't spend more than 4 dollars on any of the bibs.  I like the thicker terry cloth because it is more absorbent and washes up better.