Baby Bib & Tag Blanket

I did some sewing again!

Little a has been agreeable during the evenings, and I've had my hubby home to keep him company, so I pulled out my old little sewing machine again!

A bunch of months ago, I showed this project (baby burp blankets):

I made a few more for the other babies being born to friends and family. Then I also tried to make a matching bib. This baby bib project I got from a website I found "Homemade by Jill." But like all tutorials I follow, I had to change it to make it my own.


However, this time, I wasn't 100% happy with my results. I liked it enough to still include it in a gift, but I didn't LOVE it. Jill's were cuter and nicer. Maybe I should have followed hers exactly.

Here was my pattern. I cut out the flannel--same stuff as the receiving blankets I had made. Then I used the same trim and went around the bib (instead of following the tutorial). I ended at the neck back and stitched the rest without the trim. When I made a second one, I did the same, but put a few embellishments on (a button with a tie for decoration on the bottom left corner--where was my camera that time??? It was a bit cuter!)

So, yah. It was cute, it was fine, but it wasn't one of those projects I am jumping to make more of immediately.

Then when I had little a, my friend gave me this little pacifier blanket that she had made. I LOVED it! I had seen one a few weeks before (compliments of my little nephew from the Midwest) and thought that this was a project I could find on the net and make, but then little a came a little too early, so . . . that never happened!

Thankfully my friend is so super creative and crafty and gifted one for little a! (And I love, love, love the soft minky material!!!) Little a is now at that age where he is holding it and sleeping with it, so he love, love, loves it too! A super great gift!

So, a bunch of months/weeks/days later, I decided I wanted to still give it a try--to try to make one of these, but to make one that matched the blankets I had been making. So, here is my go at it:

The first thing I learned is that you should not sew if you still have a super bad case of mommy-head and lack of sleep. I made a huge obvious mistake that I can't believe I am actually admitting to on my blog. I sewed it all wrong!

The following is step two--not step one as I tried!

I sewed the binding on to the sides first. This obviously doesn't work when you need to sew the tags on the other sides later. Oops!

So here is my binding (see the unfinished white edge?). . .that I needed to take apart on all the corners later on. It still finished nicely, just double the work. Next time, I'll do a better job!

So, this part would be your first step. . .

Cut the ribbons for your "tags" or loops.

Have your fabric right sides together. (I used a square that was about a foot or a foot and a half square.) Pin one of the ribbons (folded as a loop to the edge that you want to sew). I pinned four tags on one edge. The "bad ends" were even with the edge of the fabric.

Then sew across the edge of the fabric. I tried taking a picture in the light so you could see my tags through the fabric. I did this to opposite ends (the top and the bottom).

Now is the time that you would want to turn the fabric inside out so the good side is showing and the tags are sticking out as shown. Then you want to sew the binding onto the sides of the blanket! Finishing the corners. . .you'll have to fold them under and hand-sew them if you want a neat, tidy finish, or you can just leave them with a cut edge at the end.(I opted for the neat edge; the original tutorial I used for the burp blankets, she made her edges just raw and cut). Then I finished off the tag blankets by stitching across the top and bottom edges about a 1/4 inch down from the edge.

And the finished project: