9 Adult Bib - With Love

My husbands Gram was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration last year.  And although this is usually a slow progressing disease, she has lost much in the time since; including living unassisted, much of her ability to speak, the ability to walk and the use of her left hand.  Due to her illness she is also having a hard time eating and keeps dropping food and liquids on her shirt.  My MIL mentioned that I am pretty crafty and could probably come up with a smock and Gram was all for it.   I brainstormed how I could make a bib big enough for her needs - being in a wheelchair she can't get as close to the table, so I wanted the smock to cover a portion of her legs as well.  I decided on a yard of a pretty fabric for the front and a thicker flannel for the back to help absorb any spilled liquid.

This was super simple to make.  I purchased two yards of fabric - 1 yard of a pretty patterned cotton and 1 of a solid flannel. I cut my fabric to the following dimensions - 36 L x 30 W

Put the wrong sides together and fold in half lengthwise, pin if you feel the need (I didn't).

Grab a large bowel (10" works great) to create the neck hole.  Place the middle of the bowl at the center of the fold.  Trace around the bowl and cut out.  Here is where I wish I had contoured the "tabs" so that they were straight edges, but were a contour shape like a babies bib.  I've already been asked to make a few more and plan on shaping like I did my son's batman cape. UPDATE: See below image to see how I cut the rest of my bibs - they lay better along the top. The bottom width is 20" (while fabric is folded in half).  I also rounded the corner and then tapered it up.  The part that straps behind the neck I also curved and tapered allowing the top neckline to lay better.

Sew around the entire bib, leaving a 3" gap in the bottom of the bib. Turn right side out.

Top stitch around the whole bib, making sure to fold in the hem of the opening.

Add velcro to the tabs and you're done.

As you can see, this has more of a hair cutting cape, but it still does the job nicely.

{Yes, that is my 6'4" husband modeling for me... yes, it looks short on him, no it is not really short.  He was not very happy about it and double-checked all the images I took to make sure you couldn't see his face - although I did sneak in the quirked lips!}