Placemat to Bib Tutorial

Awhile back, I stumbled upon this tutorial for making a placemat into a bib. I thought it was a great idea! Not too long afterwards, as I was walking through Target, I spotted these placemats on an endcap filled with new things for spring. I thought to myself, "Ooooooohh...those would make really cute bibs...when they go on clearance!" And, like most great purchases at Target, they did go on clearance. (There was only one green placemat. Rather useless for a table, but perfect for a bib. These are for my sister's fraternal twin girls, due in July.)

(These are the true colors. The other pictures were taken last night after Amanda's wedding. Nighttime is my time to do my own thing, but it means the colors are not as true. If you're here looking for Amanda's wedding pictures, I'm working on that post as we speak!)

This project was not my idea, so I want to give luvinthemommyhood full credit. I did modify her tutorial a bit, so I thought I'd post it here. I hope it's useful to someone out there! This is my first attempt at a tutorial, so I'll probably come back and edit the directions as time goes by.Here goes...

Click any picture to see detail.

1. Machine wash and dry your fabric, even if the care instructions say not to. You want any shrinking, fading, etc., to happen before you start sewing.

2. Cut the edges off of each placemat. Press. You'll have one piece of fabric for the front of the bib and one for the backing.

3. Choose a bib that you like because of its shape (or borrow from a friend!) and trace its outline on the wrong side of the front of the placemat. Pin front of placemat to back, right sides together.

4. Stitch along your tracing line, leaving a hand-sized opening along a straight part of your seam.

5. Trim the seam allowance to about 3/8". The seam allowance must be big enough to be caught securely in your topstitching, so be careful not to let the seam allowance get too small around the opening. (Trimming is easiest to do if you flip your bib over to the solid-colored backing.)

6. Clip the inner curves like this.

Clip the outer curves like this.

Here's what it looks like, trimmed and clipped.

7. Turn your bib right side out, smoothing out all the curves. Press. Pin.

8. Topstitch around edges, catching raw edges of opening securely in your seam. Add the closure of your choice. I chose sew-on velcro and used an extra-long strip of the loop side to make the neck a bit adjustable.

Voila! Two super-cute bibs for two sweet babies. Bring on the drool, spit up, and messy baby food...