craftgrrl | Taggie Blanket

I finished the Taggie blanket you were all so kind enough to advise me on.

BACKSTORY:
My family friends in TX told me that their little man loooooves tags. He rubs them and holds them and pulls them, etc... they'd expressed the desire to buy a taggie blanket from taggies.com and I stopped them. I decided that since they sent me flowers when my daughter was born and they sent a nice gift for her birthday, I wanted to be a nice friend and repay the love.

I told them not to buy the blanket and that I'd make him one.

Sure, I knew it would be difficult but I figured I'd be good enough at it. After all... it's just a blanket... right?

the details:
So I went to Michael's 90% off sale in my area. Spools of ribbon were a buck a piece. We got 8 of them. Then, we went to JoAnn's for some great fleece fabric. I called my sis to find out what the baby's theme in his room is and she told me it's primary colors and ABC's. I found the perfect material and bought the rest of the bolt at half price since we were killing it off.

I took it all home and procrastinated for two weeks.

Then a few nights ago, I decided to get started.

I measured out about a one and a half foot square of fabric and cut several little ribbon "tags", which I had to pin individually to the fleece.

Then I sewed around the entire border, fastening the tags onto the blanket.

Then I slept.

The next day, I ironed on the ribbons (with webbing) to the edges to cover my sloppy sewing job and mismatched thread. Then, I posted my question about the corners of the blanket. (I ended up cutting out one side of the ribbon and sewing it down by hand since my machine was still stubborn) And then I sewed the ribbons on with matching thread.

Following that, I sewed a little hook and loop onto the character we'd bought to go on the blanket (see, my kid is nuts about her snuggly, so I wanted this blanket to have multiple purposes... keep reading).

isn't he cute? (I didn't make him)

the stitching is rough, but it was the last inches of that thread and I couldn't fix it.

Then I flipped it over and fastened on a loop of ribbon for some letters (to follow through with the theme, and also aid in teething).

adorable, right? (toys r us)

his initials

Then... it was done. I painted on my personal logo and let it dry.

as the character snuggly

with the letters attached

DETAIL SHOTS:

frankenpuppy

the hook on the blanket, which is small enough that he can nap with the blanket over him (cause I made it big enough for that purpose) and it won't hurt him.

ribbon loop for the letters

action shot of me putting the letter into the loop. Ooooh, Aaaaah.

the hand stitched corners...

my problem corner that I cut too short--I'll probably just seal the fibers down with superglue or something so they don't fray.

And who is the recipient of this adorable blanket, you may wonder to yourself.
I'll break the monotony with a gorgeous little man named Thomas Micah.