Cute Fleece Dog Bib

I might be going a little overboard with the bib crafts, but they're all so cute! And maybe this isn't the most practical bib, but I couldn't resist trying it when I saw it!

Adapted from the book, Sewing for Tiny Tots by Susan Cousineau. My bib design is based on the book, but adjusted slightly to make it my own.

I mentioned in a previous post that it's way cheaper to buy an old piece of clothing from a thrift store rather than off the bolt at a craft store. Plus, I love that this is already worn in and won't pill as much right away since it's been washed multiple times already.
The book gives you a pattern that you can copy and enlarge to the size you want. The book suggests enlarging it 400%, but that seemed huge to me, so I cut it down to 300% for a newborn.
I cut out all the pieces from the fleece shirt and a scrap of felt.
I used a blanket stitch to outline the felt pieces for the spots and nose. The book suggested basting all the felt onto the dog face, but I felt like fusible webbing would work much better. I traced the felt pieces onto the fusible fabric and ironed them onto the face and ears.
Sewing the mouth onto the dog was a little tricky for me and I forgot to take pictures because I got so frustrated. I couldn't come up with a good way to get the lines onto the fleece so I would know where to sew. My final solution was to use a piece of tracing paper with the face drawn on it. I pinned the tracing paper to the fleece face and sewed right through both pieces. Then when I was done, I ripped the tracing paper off.

The eyes were another tricky thing. The book suggested using embroidery stitching or felt to make them. I really didn't want to mess with that after the tracing paper fiasco above. I found these doll eyes at the craft store and they worked great. Hubby cut off the ends with a pliers so they didn't stick out so much. Buttons would have worked well also.

I thought it might be fun to use some ribbon as the closure at the back of the bib rather than the usual velcro. Then the size can also be adjusted as the baby gets bigger.

A LOT of work for a bib that's just going to get dirty, but it was fun!