Tag Blanket Tutorial

Remember a long time ago when I made a tag blanket for Easton? Well, the little tutorial I used for it was on a blog that has since gone private, so I can't refer people there anymore.

Time to make one of my own.

And don't you worry, I don't expect you all to hurry up and make these in the middle of your holiday season. It's just something on my to-do list that can now be crossed off. heavenly.

A glimpse of the finished project before we even begin.
Supplies:
12" x 12" square of cotton fabric
12" x 12" square of minky fabric*
24" of 4 kinds of ribbon
12 buttons
thread
pins
scissors
sewing machine

1. Cut your two fabrics to be 12" x 12" squares
2. Cut six (6) 4" strips of each of your four ribbons.

3. Gather your 12 buttons.

4. Begin by sewing (I machine sewed, but you could also hand sew) your buttons onto the right side of your cotton fabric. I do four groups of three buttons each.

5. Sew all of your ribbon strips into loops with your sewing machine. My machine allows me to do this continually with a space between each ribbon loop (see second picture) but check your machine before attempting this as some machines won't sew the empty spaces.

6. Pin your ribbon on the right side of the cotton fabric with the loop of the ribbon facing the middle. I put 6 ribbons on each side and attach them in an "order."

7. Sew around the edge of the cotton fabric to attach the ribbons. I triple stitch each ribbon (go over it once, reverse over the entire thing and then continue forward again).

8. Lay your two squares of fabric, right sides together and sew along three edges with a 1/4" seam. On the fourth side, leave a space open so you can turn the entire thing right side out again.

9. Machine (or hand) sew your opening closed.

10. Ta-da! A completed tag blanket. (You'll see my machine stitching on the bottom right corner of this blanket, I'm no perfectionist, that is for sure).

*Really, you can use any fabric that you want to use. Minky is really, really soft fabric (I don't know how else to describe it). Most often, you will see it with the dot pattern (as in this post). The blue I have here just happens to be plain. Soft flannel, or fleece would also work great.