Our son Miles is having a moment with tags, so I decided to sew a soft tag toy for him to play with. I used scrap fabric and leftover ribbon (plus a very crinkly piece of plastic that came with one package delivery or other), and sort of just winged it – didn't measure a thing!
Here're the basics, though, if you want to make one too.
You will need:
- Two pieces of fabric (can match or not; I chose two different ones) and one piece of batting, all cut to the same size
- Pieces of ribbon cut to about 4" (or longer or shorter, depending on the length you want the "tags" to be)
- Straight pins
- Contrasting thread
- Sewing machine
- Crinkly plastic (optional – I salvaged ours from an Amazon box but they do sell it online [affiliate link])
Wash and dry your fabric and batting.
Layer it like this: fabric square #1 right side facing up; fabric square #2 right side facing down; batting.
Fold a ribbon piece in half and tuck it in between the two fabric squares. Pin in place. Repeat to add the rest of your ribbon. (You won't be able to see any of the ribbon yet.) Pin around the rest of the square, leaving a 2-3" opening.
Stitch around the square (except for the opening).
Use the opening to turn the square inside out. Tuck the crinkly plastic in, if you're using it.
Turn the raw edges of the opening in, and pin in place. Top-stitch around the whole square.
(There's a video tutorial on Facebook if you'd rather check that out, plus you get to see even more of Miles's chubby hands!)
I love finding projects I don't need to buy a thing for (we got lucky with that plastic!). All told this took about 45 minutes to make and was a fun little task to work on. The baby is already enjoying it! I think I'd like to try making one or two more, maybe with a tactilely interesting fabric like velvet.
PS – How to turn any object into a stuffed toy!
