Once upon a time, when Mr. ThreapingThreePants was a wee little thing just learning to feed himself and it became clear to me that store-bought bibs were useless, a very dear and generous someone mentioned that in her day, people made bibs from towels that just slipped over baby's head and covered everything. Hmmm, said I, interesting, in exactly the way people do when they're not really listening.
Dear and generous someone took that as an open invitation and soon presented me with a huge stack of towels and five colors of cotton/spandex ribbing. And a sewing machine already set up for my visit.
What was I supposed to do? I made about a dozen of them (with someone marveling throughout that You do this so well! and I'll really have to learn how to do this!) and put the project behind me.
A few months later, what should appear before me but a new stack of towels, pretty striped ones this time, and new (coordinating!) ribbing. Dear and generous someone had been struck with artistic bib inspiration at the handtowel sale table, but still felt a little unsure of the actual sewing... would I mind?
Who am I to stand in the way of artistic expression through terry cloth? I made the pretty striped bibs.
Now, years later, here we are with Shmoogie learning to feed herself and the original bibs are still with us. (They don't keep banana mush out of her hair any more than they did with Mr. ThreapingThreePants, nor do they interfere with Shmoogie's own careful experiments regarding gravity - exactly as I remember her brother doing, she will pick up a small piece of food from the tray, lean waaaaaay over the side of the high chair, peer studiously over the edge, and drop! the food bit, watching intently as it hits the ground and - amazing! - stays there.)
Now, it's not like these bibs wear out, so we still have plenty of them. They get a little stained, though, which must be the reason that in the past few months, this stack of supplies has come piecemeal through the mail, the latest one with a sweet little note...

Finally, I get it! I get it! You really really want a tutorial on making towel bibs! Not that there aren't others out there, but this is how I do it.
How to Make a Towel Bib
Supplies: 1 hand towel (generously sized, but I'll warn you that too thick and cushy just makes for too much laundry space and drying time), 1/4 yard of cotton/spandex ribbing (1/4 yard is enough for several bibs), also a permanent marker, a 6" diameter paper plate, and basic sewing machine/thread/needle/scissors/pins. Use a normal to slightly longish straight stitch throughout the project. And remember - perfectionism has no place in useful baby projects! Just do it!
Step 1: Lay your towel upside down on a flat surface. Place your circle template (the paper plate or bowl or whatever) in the middle of the towel (widthwise) and about 3/4's of the way toward one end (lengthwise). Trace around the template with your permanent marker.
Step 2: Cut out the circle you've traced, being careful to leave the rest of the towel intact. Cut a bit outside the permanent marker line so you'll be sure there's no marker in your final project. Cut a long rectangle (5"-5.5" tall and 15" long) on the cross-grain of the ribbing fabric (so that the ribs make vertical lines when your rectangle is horizontal, like this ||||||||||||||||||). You might want to try putting the towel on an actual baby at this point, if you have one available. The hole should fit easily over baby's head - the ribbing will fill in the extra space and too tight a fit over the head will make baby angry (not that I would know...). Remember, too, that babies grow! And these bibs are very useful all the way through toddlerhood.
Step 3: Lay the front side of your ribbing (there might be a subtle difference between the two sides - the front side is the one with deeper ridges) against the back side of your towel, matching the raw edges of the ribbing with the raw edge of the circle opening you've cut and starting from the back of the neck. Starting a half-inch from one end of the ribbing, stitch the ribbing all the way around the circle, stretching the ribbing (but not the towel) as you go (stretch as much as reasonable, you will have to provide some counter pull to the fabric behind the needle to keep from working against the feed-dogs). When you get all the way around the circle, make sure to pull the extra half-inch of ribbing you left at the beginning out of the way and stitch right up to it.
Step 4: Using the ribs as a guide for a straight line, match up the first end of the ribbing with the final end (there will be extra fabric at the final end). (With right sides together, but you knew that.) Pin and stitch with a half-inch seam allowance, then cut off the extra ribbing.
Step 5: Turn the whole thing right side out. Starting from the back seam, fold the ribbing in half and turn the raw edge under a quarter to a half an inch and pin in place all around the neck. This is the most fiddly part, you may have to try a few times to avoid twists in the ribbing. I find it best to put the first pin in at the back seam, which is easy to line up, then figure out the center front, then the sides, then a pin in between each of those (eight pins total).
Step 6: Top stitch around the whole neck very close to the folded-under edge you've just pinned. Then top stitch again, about 1/4 inch inside the line you just stitched. This extra line keeps the neck lying nice and smooth over the long run.
All done! Find a baby to admire your work on!