Soft Taggie Blanket

Another present I made for my friend's baby shower was a taggie blanket. I was so excited when I found black minky at Hobby Lobby because other places don't sell it. I got 1/2 a yard of minky and the guitar fabric came from my friend (that's what she used to recover the baby's car seat).

I found some ribbon at Joann. Since there wasn't a lot of printed ribbon by the yard...I found more colorful prints in with the edging and straps. I also found some large ric rac that I thought would be cute. I bought 8" of each ribbon since that would be enough to use each ribbon twice around the blanket.

Also, since most of my ribbon was plain...I bought some 1/4" ribbon to add to some of the larger ribbons to make them look more interesting.

I started by cutting two large squares out of the cotton and minky.

I cut all my ribbon pieces in half and laid them around the blanket in a pattern that looked good to me. You can also see where I took my 1/4" orange ribbon and laid pieces on top of the larger pieces of ribbon to be sewn together.

Next, I sewed all the ribbons in half (with right side out) to make all my loops.

Then, I sewed all the loops to the right side of the cotton fabric. I sewed them with the loop part facing in and the raw edges facing out and with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Finally, I put my minky piece on top (right side down) and sewed all the way around the square (still making sure my ribbon pieces were turned in). I left an opening so that I could flip it right side out.

Once I flipped it right side out (and made sure all my ribbon loops were facing out), I top stitched all the way around to close up the opening.

There are a lot of steps that you wouldn't necessarily HAVE to do (like pre sewing the loops, or sewing them onto the cotton first)...but since this was my first taggie, and a gift, I wanted to make sure it was all even and secure. Plus I like knowing that the ribbons are sewn in a few times so that they won't tear out over time.

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Sugar and Dots