Easy Scrap Bibs

This week has been rough on my little family, but I promised to limit my complaining, so I'll keep it simple:  Sometimes the bad things in life arrive strung neatly together like little, horrible pearls with barely any space between them. 

We have been desperately looking forward to this monumental week in my pregnancy (it's ultrasound week, people!!!) This is the week that we will receive confirmation of our baby's health - and almost as importantly, we will discover whether Baby Number Two is a boy or a girl!  The anticipation has been almost unbearable.  I told Jared on Saturday, "we just have to make it through the next few days... then the ultrasound appointment will be here!"  Those simple words cursed us...

I won't go into detail about the week's misfortunes (and trust me, there are some details you really don't want to hear about).  But the saddest, most upsetting event of the week was the demise of my fancy, expensive DSLR camera lens at the hands of my sweet, seemingly innocent 14-month-old baby.  It truly was a freak accident, but the grief I felt at this loss sent me into a tailspin of pregnancy emotion that I wallowed in for far too long.  I had to remind myself that, "it's an inanimate object," and, "it can be replaced," but sometimes those words just don't have what it takes to make you feel better (especially when the cost of replacement is roughly $200 that doesn't exist in your budget). 

After I recovered somewhat from the shock, I pulled the last few pictures off of my memory card and realized that I had documented a fun project last week!  Replacing the broken and worn out has been a running theme in our house lately, and I've honestly been doing all I can do to ease the impact it has had on our budget.  So when I decided that all of Little J's yellowing bibs were too gross to use any more, I dug into my scrap fabric and came up with a little something.

Although a little girly, these fabrics coordinate nicely

I sewed my strips of scrap fabric together, making sure that the overall surface area would be big enough to serve as the face of my bib.

I used one of Little J's bibs that fit nicely as a template (tracing around it on paper).  I had to make the neck hole slightly bigger, since my scrap fabric doesn't have any stretch to it.

I cut some coordinating fabric to serve as the back of my bib, pinning it "pretty sides together" with my sewn strips.  I then pinned my pattern to the fabric (I could have just traced around the pattern, which would have been easier, actually).

 
And sewed along the edge of the pattern, leaving a hole for turning right-side-out.

Once finished sewing, I cut around my stitching.  I also snipped carefully around the curves to allow for a smoother look once turned.

 

Then turn!

 

I like to close up my "turning hole" by sewing a border around the entire bib - this way my closing seam is disguised.  This also keeps the bib nice and flat (no bubbling or weird poofing).

 

Here's a back view :

And here is my adorable model:

I cropped out the enormous booger that was in his nose. You're welcome!