A Keepsake Taggie

A good friend of my mother's is having her fourth child soon and her baby shower was Saturday.  I have to say, she looks fabulous!  Mom made a quilt for the new baby, incorporating pieces of clothing from all five members of the family.  It took her forever, but it was really worth all the effort.  It turned out beautiful!

So, Friday evening rolled around and I reallized that I had no baby shower gift!  I had planned on using the clothing scraps from Mom's quilt in my gift, but just hadn't gotten around to planning what I was going to make.  I went through several options in my head on Friday, and I decided to cut the clothing scraps into 1" squares and make tiny quilt blocks.  I used them to make a taggie blankie and a rattle, but the rattle got scrapped at the last minute.

For the tiny quilt blocks, I ironed the 1" squares to 5" squares of fusible interfacing, one at a time. I then ironed the 5" squares onto an old baby sleeper from my "spare parts" bag.  Next time, though, I'll use woven fabric.  This stuff had more stretch in it than I wanted.

Anyway, I cut out my squares and quilted them on my sewing machine, using a tight zigzag stitch, then sewed four squares together, making the top of my little taggie blankie.

I cut various lengths of different types of ribbon from my ribbon stash and sewed them into loops.  I just fed them through the machine, one after the other, and ended up with a long strip of loops.  This was just to keep them folded over while I put the whole thing together.

I paired up the quilted top with a scrap of white fleece, right sides together, then clipped the ribbon loops apart and stuck 7-8 between the two layers, lining up the edge of the ribbon with the edges of the fabric.

I sewed this edge together, with the ribbons sandwiched in between, before pinning the next side.   With each subsequent side, I made sure to pin back the ribbons that were already sewn on, so they wouldn't get caught in the new stitches.

On the last side, I left a two inch opening and turned the blankie right side out.  I pressed it flat, then pinned the remaining two ribbon loops into the opening.

I topstitched all around the blankie and was finished!

I then attempted to make a matching rattle.  I rather impressed myself by using a paperclip and this little bubble from a toy vending machine, superglued shut, as the inside of the rattle.

 

I cut circles out of the two remaining quilted 5" squares and, right sides together, stitched around the edge.  I apparently can't sew an even circle, because when I turned it right side out and stuffed it, this is what it looked like.  In theory, I was going to add the ribbon handle and stitch it shut, but in reality, it went in the scrap pile.

Oh well.  Better luck next time.  At least the taggie was cute!