How to Make a Bibblecloth

Are you tired of cleaning up your tablecloth, the floor, and your child after every meal? A Bibblecloth is here to help. This product is very inexpensive and easy to make. The only difficult part is convincing your child to wear it!

To make a Bibblecloth you will need the following materials: 1 large T-shirt, scissors, pins, a sewing needle, thread, two-part Velcro, and a pen, pencil, or marker. The pins, needles, thread, and two-part Velcro can all be purchased at a fabric store like Jo-Ann Fabric.

Layout your T-shirt. Draw a line marking from the center of the bottom of the back of the shirt straight up to the neckline of your shirt. Draw another (more curved line) that outlines the T-shirt neckline. Leave the T-shirt neck hem in tact. This will support the Bibblecloth around your child's neck. Use your scissors to cut along your drawn lines.

After you cut your T-shirt, spread out the material so that the bottom of the T-shirt is pulled out across your workspace. The next cut on your shirt should begin from the outer two sides of your T-shirt and will angle in towards the neck line. The objective of the next two cuts is to remove the two shirt sleeves. You can mark the lines using a writing utencil before you cut them or you can estimate the direction of your cut.

Remove the two cut sleeve pieces. Now, you should use pins to fold over the cut fabric edges to make the hemming process easier. Hemming the T-shirt will help prevent fraying or ripping of your Bibblecloth. Be sure to fold your fabric for hemming towards the inside of your shirt. The inside of the shirt is the side that will reveal the majority of your sewing and thread knots.

After you pin the edges where you cut, you are ready to hem. Whether you have a sewing machine handy or just a needle with thread, you can now sew the hem line around the cut edges of your T-shirt. When using a needle and thread, obviously, you insert the thread into the eye of the needle (I suggest moistening the end of the thread that will be entering the needle's eye.) I start out with about 2-3 feet of thread on my needle. After you cut the thread from the spool, you need to create a knot that will lock the first stitch into the T-shirt. One method for creating a knot is wrapping thread around your finger a few times, moisten your fingers and roll the thread off your finger. If you slightly tug on this thread collection, you will have a small knot which will easily hold your hem sewing. I recommend that you start your needle by sticking it at one of the T-shirt ends down into the folded T-shirt fabric from the inside of the shirt. This will hide your knot ball on the inside of your completed Bibblecloth. If you run out of thread while hemming, repeat the threading-the-needle process until all cut edges have been hemmed.

After your T-shirt has been hemmed, you are ready to attach the Velcro to the base of the T-shirt. Follow the same pinning process to initially attach the rough side of Velcro to the T-shirt. Cut the Velcro to match the width of the T-shirt and begin sewing. Here is a close up of how I hand stitched the Velcro. I stitch near the edges of the Velcro strip so as to make it more secure.

Enjoy your new and improved, cleaner dining!