Monogram Crinkle Taggie Baby Toy

Today I'm sharing this super easy and perfect baby gift, the Monogram Crinkle Taggie Baby Toy. I made one of these for my niece and blogged about it here, but didn't write a tutorial for it. This time when I made a couple for friends who had new babies, I snapped a few pictures along the way. 

There are a lot of tutorials for these out there, but I loved the idea of adding a monogram to the toy. Handmade gifts are already so special, but anything with the baby's first initial or their name makes it that much more special. I knew my friends would love these toys for their new babies. 

These toys are baby gold. They make noise and the tags hold the attention of those tiny tiny fingers, and of course mouths. Ha.  And the best part? They are easy to make and pretty inexpensive! 

Let's make one!

Gather your materials:

You'll need some scrap pieces of white felt

Coordinating fabrics for the front of the toy- if you have scraps, you may be able to make those work! 

1 ______inch square

and 1 ____inch circle

Terry cloth or some super soft baby fabric for the back of the toy (1 _______inch square)

Ribbon- various colors and patterns

something that makes noise (cereal, chip, or cracker bags, baby wipe bags, etc.)- I used scrap pieces of lamination I wasn't going to use from a school project. (1 ______inch square) 

________

nice fabric scissors, water soluble pen, liquid stitch or fabric glue, coordinating thread

To make the monogram:

If you are really good and can cut letters free-hand, go for it. I usually can do okay, but I wanted something fancy for a little girl so I printed this letter and cut it out to trace onto the fabric. Use a water soluble fabric pen, trace the letter onto the felt and use your fabric scissors to cut it out. 

Use the fabric glue to glue the letter to the fabric you're using for the circle. Use a water soluble pen to trace a circle around the letter, ensuring it is in the center. Cut out the fabric.

Iron on a matching circle of ____ then peel off the paper backing.

Iron the circle onto the front square of fabric, then zig zag stitch around the circle with a 2/8 inch seam allowance. If you want to stitch around the letter, do that now. I didn't with this letter because I forgot mostly, but I did on the other toy I made with the C on it. It won't matter if you don't stitch it because the glue will keep the letter on, but it will make it look professional if you do this step (and don't forget like I did!). 

Now let's finish this toy. 

Next, cut strips of ribbon about  4 or 5 inches long 

Fold them in half and pin them with the fold facing toward the middle of the square about an inch apart.  Remember that the seam allowance will cut off about a 1/2 inch of the ribbon so be sure that you have the amount of the ribbon you want towards the middle. 

On one edge, space your ribbons about 2 1/2 inches apart. this will be where you turn the fabric inside out once you sew it. It may look a little weird, but once it gets all finished, you won't even notice. 

Next layer on top the back square of fabric right side facing the right side of the top square and then your square of noise making plastic on top. Safety pin the layers in the middle of the square. Pin around the edges well. 

Sew around the edge with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, removing pins as you go, stopping before you get to the larger gap between the ribbons. Don't forget to backstitch. 

Clip your corners and trim any excess fabric and ribbons. If it makes you feel better, you can zig zag stitch the edges or you can use pinking shears to ensure the fabric doesn't fray. (not pictured!) I actually forgot to clip my corners on the blue and gray toy which caused it not to have crisp corners- don't be like me. :) 

Turn your toy inside out and poke out the corners with a blunt pencil or a similar tool. 

On the opening fold the fabric inward to match the rest of the fabric, press with an iron, and use a whipstitch to hand sew the opening closed. 

Press both sides of the toy, then top stitch around the edge of the fabric with a 3/8 inch seam allowance. I usually just keep my eye on the foot and be sure it is in line with the edge of the toy. 

Finished! 

These are so easy and cute. 

Any baby would love them. 

In the picture above, you can see a few of my ribbons got skewed a little while sewing so they aren't completely straight. You'll want to prevent that as much as possible, but if you can't it's not a huge deal. 

Soft, brightly colored, noisy, personalized, and ready for baby!!

If you loved this idea for baby, be sure to check out my tips on making a Faux Chenille Baby Blanket, and this tutorial on a really easy Easter Flower Onesie Dress! 

And for more simple sewing projects, You'll want to check out this Easy DIY Backyard Hammock, these reverse applique Fabric Heart Coasters, and these Sketchy Dot Placemats.

Thanks for reading! 

Faux Chenille Baby Blanket

Hello! I hope you've been having a relaxing holiday! I've been home visiting my family so I've been laying low. I'll have more fun ideas up for you soon! 

I'm pretty proud of this little blanket. I've never made a blanket or quilt before now and I've been feeling quite accomplished. Ha. It is NOWHERE close to perfect, but that's okay. It was a great learning experience and I'll know what to do better next time. Any mistakes are not too noticeable to an untrained eye anyway and I'm sure Matt's 15 month old niece won't care a bit. 

I cannot claim the genius behind this gorgeous faux chenille idea. The tutorial I followed is on Aesthetic Nest, here, and I also read Dana's tutorial for additional tips on Made, here. If you've never seen any of these faux chenille blankets before, you've got to go read the tutorials. It really is amazing how they're made and the result is just so beautiful. Basically you stack several layers of fabric, sew. then cut all the layers except the bottom layer. When you put it in the washer and dryer, the cut fabric frays up and creates the wavy fluffy appearance you see. Crazy and awesome. 

 Aren't those waves of chenille just beautiful?! I'm not going to lie to you and say it was super easy or fast, because it wasn't. And, of course, I made changes to the tutorial to make it more difficult on myself. I always do that. 

However, if you are wanting to make a beautiful blanket for a loved one, this one really is a show stopper. 

Just in case you want to make one, here's what I did that was different from the tutorial I used:

Materials:

Annette Tatum Bohemian Ikat Diamond Pink Fabric (front of blanket)

High Loft Batting (crib size) (the kind of batting used for a fluffy blanket appearance)*

White fabric with a little print

4 various coordinating colors of cotton flannel

1/2 inch satin binding (made by me from 2 inch satin binding-directions on how here)

*In hind sight, this may not be the best kind to use. :)

And this awesome tool, the Olfa Chenille Cutter, was a lifesaver. Seriously. Cutting all those layers takes time and concentrated effort and lots of time. In my experience, it was well worth having one.

Process:

So when I made my sample square, the backing fabric that I did not cut (the printed fabric) seemed thinner and floppier than I had anticipated. I'm sure it would have been fine, but I wanted it to be a little thicker so I decided to add in some layers of flannel so the chenille would be even fluffier, and to also make that back layer thicker. My plan worked except it was much more difficult to sew. It was heavy and stiff, during the sewing process so it did not just glide through the machine-I did a lot of tugging and pulling and moving the fabric around. The end product was great, but getting there was tough. I think a thinner batting would do the trick just fine and it may make it a little easier to sew. 

So instead of layering just 1 layer of back printed fabric, I stacked that fabric (printed side down) first, then the layer of batting, then the all white fabric (it had a little print on it which helped in the cutting process since I could easily tell which layers to cut) then the 4 layers of cotton flannel on top. I safety pinned all layers and sewed as directed in the tutorial. When cutting I used the  Olfa Chenille Cutter to cut only the flannel layers (as directed in the tutorial) so the back layer was actually 3 layers (the printed fabric, the batting, and the white fabric). 

If you make one and add in all these layers, know that it will feel crazy stiff when you sew it, but it will fluff up and be really nice when you cut it up and wash and dry it. 

When binding, I followed the directions on the tutorial, but it was very difficult to fit all those layers into 1/2 inch binding even with LOTS of pinning. I did it, but I can't say it was the prettiest result. A wider binding would have been just as pretty and easier to sew.

Obviously this is not a complete tutorial. You'll need to read this tutorial to see a complete guide. The only thing I did different really was add the layers! 

Just thought I'd share my findings and tips! I hope they help if you make one, too!

I used some of the extra binding as a ribbon to tie around it. You don't even need a gift bag! 

I'd love to see yours if you make one or hear how it went if you add the layers like I did!

Thanks for reading! 

Crinkle Tag Toy=Easiest DIY Baby Toy Ever

 Mr. Lovie's niece, Kayleigh, is turning 1 on September 9th. Kayleigh and her mom and dad live several hours away, but they were in town on Labor Day so we were able to celebrate her birthday together. We had a wonderful time. I love sweet baby cuddles. 

Of course I had to make Kayleigh a little toy.

 Like most babies, Kayleigh loooves crinkle noises and these little taggies you find on a lot of baby toys.  I checked out this tutorial before I made it to make sure my idea on how to make it wasn't crazy. :) One side is regular cotton fabric and the other side is a thicker fleece. This is seriously the easiest baby gift ever. You've got to try it. 

 Cutie, right? 

For the crinkle I used really cellophane, or really loud plastic. I couldn't really find cellophane in the gift wrap section in Target, so I just bought a package of gift bags and the plastic packaging on that was perfectly loud and crinkly. It's layered between the two fabrics. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Kayleigh!