Baby shower gifts

There seems to be an explosion of pregnant women at work these days and they all seem to be due right around the same time. I decided that handmade gifts are in order!!! We're having a baby shower on Thursday and mama is having a sweet little boy, so I made her a reversible bib and matching burp cloth. The back of the burp cloth is terry cloth which will absorb any and all spills that come it's way!

I even tried my hand at applique for the very first time and I think I'm in love.

*swoon*

For any newbies out there don't let the fancy word "applique" scare you. All it really means is cutting fabric into a shape and sewing it onto another fabric.

A tip: Using some sort of fabric bonding spray adhesive helps to keep your little shape in place while you sew so that you don't have to pin it. I purchased mine for a few dollars at JoAnn's and it's called Spray Adhesive (imagine that!) by Dritz. Yellow cap. Very handy. All you do is spray a little on the back of your shape, place it where you want it to go, then sew very close to the edge to keep it in place. You can also do a fancy stitch that covers the edges of your shape so that they don't fray in the wash, but I think it looks cool when the edges get a little worn. Shows that it is used and loved.

Another tip: Did you know that you can have your top thread be one color and the bottom be another!!!??? I didn't! I read it somewhere online and gave it a try on this project. You thread the needle with whatever color you want the top color to be, and put a bobbin in for whatever color you want the bottom color to be. I wanted the star pattern to show through on the backside of the bib so I made the bobbin color red and the top color white. I must remember this for future projects......

:)