How to Make Taggies for Infants

Taggies-style blankets are created to be sucked, held and loved by infants.

Upon noticing that babies tend to prefer the small satin tag on a stuffed animal to the animal itself, one mom created blankets that feature an abundance of looped satin tags extending from the blankets’ edges. These blankets are sold under the Taggies brand name. You can easily sew a Taggies-style blanket at home, which allows you to custom select the fabric and ribbons. Once you see how much babies love Taggies blankets, you will want to sew one for every baby you know.

Things You'll Need

• Flat cloth diaper
• 1/2 yard flannel fabric
• Scissors
• 16 6-inch long pieces of 3/4-inch wide satin ribbon in various colors and prints
• Straight pins
• Sewing machine
• Thread

Instructions

1. Machine wash the cloth diaper and flannel fabric to prevent the finished blanket from shrinking. Iron the cloth diaper and flannel fabric smooth.

2. Lay the flannel fabric right side down on a flat surface. Lay the cloth diaper on top the flannel fabric and trace around the perimeter of the cloth diaper with a pencil.

3. Lift the cloth diaper from the flannel fabric and lay it flat on a smooth work surface. Cut the flannel fabric along the pencil-drawn lines. Set the cut flannel fabric aside.

4. Pick up one of the 16 pieces of satin ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half lengthwise. Place the folded ribbon on top the bottom-left corner of the cloth diaper with the folded end of the ribbon pointed toward the center of the diaper and the two loose ends of the ribbon aligned with the bottom edge of the diaper. Hold the ribbon in place with a straight pin.

5. Pick up another piece of satin ribbon and fold it half. Place it three inches to the right of the first ribbon with the folded end of the ribbon pointed toward the center of the diaper and the two loose ends of the ribbon aligned with the bottom edge of the diaper. Hold the ribbon in place with a straight pin. Continue evenly spacing folded ribbons around the entire perimeter of the diaper and pinning them in place.

6. Pick up the piece of cut flannel fabric and place it right side down directly on top of the cloth diaper. The ribbons should be sandwiched between the flannel fabric and the cloth diaper. Secure the flannel fabric to the cloth diaper with straight pins. Leave an unpinned four-inch gap along one of the edges.

7. Place the flannel, ribbon and diaper sandwich on the sewing machine. Use a straight stitch and a 1/4-inch seam allowance and begin stitching at the right of the four-inch gap that was left along one of the edges. Remove straight pins before they encounter the sewing needle. Sew around the perimeter until you reach the left edge of the four-inch gap. Cut the thread and remove the material from the sewing machine.

8. Turn the material right side out through the four-inch gap. Turn under the unfinished edges along the gap and pin them in place. There will be one or two satin ribbons along the gap that still need to be sewn in. Unpin these ribbons. Keep them folded in half and insert the loose ends into the gap. Pin in place.

9. Place the material back on the sewing machine and use a straight stitch and a 1/4-inch seam allowance to sew across the gap. Continue stitching around the entire perimeter of the material so that the ribbon tags are firmly secured in the blanket. Cut the thread and remove the material from the sewing machine.

10. Remove any remaining straight pins.

Tips & Warnings

• Using a cloth diaper as one side of the Taggie-style blanket makes the blanket absorbent, so it can be used as a burp cloth if necessary. However, any material can be used for either side of the blanket.

• A small blanket is easy for an infant to hold and carry, but a blanket can be sewn to any dimensions.

References

• Taggies: About Us
• Chica and Jo: Ribbon-Embellished Blankets