*Before and After* Baby Rags

I had wanted to jazz up Ella's burp rags for awhile now, especially when she was an infant and I seemed to have one over my shoulder or stuffed in my back pocket at all times!  We didn't get any fancy rags because, well, they are rags after all, made for wiping and cleaning (though used for much more, including stand-in diaper when I was caught without a spare diaper liner...a common casualty of never having a designated baby bag!)  But when Ella was little I was too busy being overwhelmed and slogging through new-mommyhood and didn't have the time/energy/creative brain power to put towards such a trivial thing.  Fast forward a year and Hark! I have time!  (Oh glorious naps - cleaning shmeaning, I'd rather be creating!!)  So I decided to do her baby rags two ways...

This group of burp cloths are actually organic cotton cloth diapers, a baby gift from some good friends, and with all the washing they have been through, these cloths are super soft!  I didn't want to lessen the usable space, so I decided to make my own (here's a tutorial on how you can too) using pretty fabric scraps. 

I love love this fabric, especially the flowers, and am happy that it is gender-neutral enough that boy or girl, our next child will be cleaned up in style!!

My second group of burp cloths was not so soft - this was my utilitarian bunch that gets the job done.

The fabric is thinner and a bit more coarse, as well as a lot less even, so I decided to go the potato-print route.  This had the added bonus of covering existing stains!! 

I again tried to keep most of the pattern on the outside, so that the inside portion of the cloth could be used for wiping and what-not. 

Potato prints are easy-peasy, just 1.) cut away the bits of potato you don't want printed and then 2.) dip in a bit of paint and stamp away.  I would recommend a basic design for a greater impact.

The irony of these pretty baby rags is that after I finished, the paint was dry and the pictures taken, I folded them up and put them into storage for our next little one, whenever that may be.  In the meantime, I plan on doing some similar jazzing to my plain white dish towels - FUN!!!