Baby Taggies

So i must admit, up until last week i had no idea what these were or what the point of them was, despite having a new baby. You'd think i was in the no wouldn't you. But i saw somebody on my birth group (baby centre UK)asking for a good retailer so was curious enough to google them. Basically they are little blankets with ribbon tags that the baby can hook her fingers thru, chew on etc etc.

I am no sewer but i decided to have ago. I was thwarted immediately as i couldn't figure out how to change the needle on my sewing machine. Its had the same one i use for scrapbooking in it for 3 years. Then the bulb came loose so every now and then it went out, and i was sewing at 9pm! So sewing blind half the time.

Here is my first ever taggie





I am pretty chuffed with it. I used a ribbon fabric off cut from another project i am working on. Ideally you should use a nice soft fleece.

Here are a few basic instruction. I will add more photo's the next time i make one.

Materials

Material. (The material should be something soft and baby-friendly such as micro fleece. TOP TIP, i make baby blankets from the fleece throws you can buy from Primark UK, £5 makes lots)

Ribbon. (As i scrapbooker i have lots of ribbon off cuts, so taggies are perfect for using up the left overs. You can use any ribbon you like, as long as it’s made of fabric and baby-friendly. I mixed up the width, colour and texture in my taggie, adds interest for the baby.

Pins

Coordinating thread thread

Sewing machine

Good Scissors

Instructions

Decide on a size for your blanket. Once you have decided on the size cut two layers of material, 1″ bigger. For example i went for a 12" blanket so i cut 2 pieces of my material at 13″x13″. This leaves you with a seam allowance of 1/2″ all around.

Cut your chosen ribbons into 6″ lengths. Rule of thumb is to place a ribbon every 2 inches along each side of the blanket. So for my 12″ blanket, I used 4 ribbons on each side, 16 in total.

Take one piece of material and lay it face up (good side up) on the table. Take one of your ribbons and fold it in half. Pin it on top of the fabric with the folded edge towards the middle and the cut ends touching the end of the Material. Pin at least an inch away from the edge of the material for the sewing machine. Repeat the pinning of all your ribbons @ every 2" until you have ribbon all the way around. Don’t worry about overlapping ribbons at the corners as they come out OK later.

Place the other piece of material face down (good side down) on top of your pinned piece, ensuring the edges are all together. I secured both pieces of material with extra pins.

Now its time to sew. Don't be nervous, its just fabric and not the end of the earth if you mess it up. Sew around all four sides, 1/2″ in from the edge, making sure you catch both ends of each ribbon as you go. BUT do not sew all the way around — leave a gap of about 2 inches open on one edge so that you can flip the blanket inside out.

Using your good scissors, cut the material off from each corner, BUT be careful that you don’t cut the stitches. Doing this will reduce the bulkiness of the corners when you flip the blanket later.


Carefully begin to turn the blanket inside out by pushing it through the 2" gap you left whilst sewing. Carefully, remove all of the pins. The ribbon that was next to the 2" gap is still loose. Fold the edges of material along the gap inwards and tuck the ends of the loose ribbon inside. So the folded end of the ribbon should be sticking out this time. Pin it in place, being sure to go through all layers of the fabric

Using the sewing machine again, sew as close to the edge of the fabric as possible all the way around. This sewing closes the gap you left for flipping, and keeps the last ribbon in place, and gives extra security to the other ribbons. I did another row of sewing as well just to neaten it all up, giving it a shabby chic look.

And that is your taggie complete, ready for baby to stuff in their mouth!!!! Just double check you have REMOVED all the pins first!.

TFL

Sarah