Sewing for my Baby Boy

Recycled Tag Blanket Tute

Today was a long day. My baby boy turned 2 months old yesterday and received his 1st series of immunizations today. Let's just say he was a little fussy this afternoon, but thankfully is dreaming sweet dreams now. After I laid him down tonight, I decided to get in my studio and make him a little treat.

I have been saving tags for a while now. You know, those adorable tags that your kids make you cut out of their tees because they itch. When you have 4 kids, tags are easy to come by!

So here is a little tute that I wanted to share. It's not a new idea by any means, but the measurements are listed to help you get started and I just love the look of the recycled tags. I think it turned out really well and I hope Tristan will love it!

Happy Sewing!!

Materials

(2) 13.5" square fabrics(minky,woven,recycled tee shirts,etc)

tags

1 snap

1 small scrap of fabric for loop

Directions

1. Cut out 2 squares from your fabrics, both 13.5" squared. I used minky because I had it readily available, but it would be really cute with recycled tee fronts too! I may have to try that the next go around!

2. Round your corners on your 2 squares. For this I take a small bowl, place it on the edges and cut my corners with a rotary cutter. Fast and easy!

3. Cut a rectangle 2" wide x 7" long from a scrap piece of fabric. I used a woven for this, but you could use a knit too. Iron the sides in so that they are touching and then fold over again, like you are making bias tape. I then tucked in the raw edges on one end and topstitched with the sewing machine.

4. Now go ahead and pin your tags where you would like them on one of your squares. Pin your strip(the raw edge) to a corner. All of your tags and strip should be pinned inward onto your fabric along the edges.

5. Lay your other square on top, right sides together and pin, pin, pin!! I am a big fan of pinning your work, especially when it stretches like minky does.

6. Take your pinned fabrics and go around them on a sewing machine. I used a small seam allowance because I wanted to make sure that the pictures on my tags showed when sewn. Remember when sewing these kind of fabric, slow and steady wins the race!! Go slow and make sure your edges and tags are all meeting up as you sew.

IMPORTANT: Don't forget to leave about 2 inches free to turn your blanket out at the end.

7. After you have sewn around, leaving a turnout spot, Turn it Out, and topstitch the area closed. I then went ahead and zig zagged around my blanket edges.(this is optional)

8. Add your snap to your loop, one part should be close to the blankets edge, the other close to the other end of your strip.

9. Ta da, all done! Isn't that cute!! You can use the loop to attach the blanket to the carrier, so baby doesn't throw your hard work overboard or you can attach baby's binky through the loop. I don't have a modeling shot of the binky, it's currently in use!