Taggy Blanket for Baby

I like to give expecting parents a practical gift for their babies, AND also make them a taggy blanket for fun. Since getting an embroidery machine, I get to give out personalized ones. Up until now, I have forgotten to take pictures of them to show here on my blog. But here you go!

I hope little Lila likes her new taggy.

The pink is a nice soft fleece, with a piece of scrap cotton and lots of assorted ribbons of different colors, textures, and sizes for little fingers to play with.

My own daughter, at 2, sleeps with her taggy each night. Although hers is (gasp!) store bought. I picked it up in a baby store when I was first pregnant. It's kind of fun to collect different ribbons to use for these. Even my sweet husband has gotten in on the act and has given me ribbons as gifts!

I have to go hide this now until I see Lila. If Delilah sees it she may claim it for her own!

This gift is good for both boys AND girls. I'm going to write a little tute and post it here shortly. If you have some sewing experience, you can probably figure this out on your own, just take this one hint from me. Make sure to use a small stitch and ensure those ribbons are super duper secure (mine are triple stitched) because these are for babies and safety first! Tute hopefully this week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Later skaters,

Janimal

Get Ready For The Holidays!

It's September already?!?! How did that sneak up on me so fast?!? Time to kick holiday gift crafting/sewing into gear!

At a local sewing guild meeting, we shared "30 minute gifts". So I made a few giftcard holders that can double as business card holders for the recipient later. A gift in a gift.



(My easy-peasy tutorial to make these is HERE.)

I have plans to get together with a friend and make some reusable fabric giftbags. My friend found THIS TUTORIAL to make some drawstring bags that looks pretty cool to follow.


Other gifts to make? Well, I just spent a weekend in NYC hanging out with my cool brothers and even cooler nephew. I got to shop at the fabulous Purl Soho and bought this book (that was recently spotlighted on their blog).




Oh the dollies in my future! One of the doll patterns was published over at Martha Stewart, so I'll make that dolly up, and post my pictures and the link hopefully within a week.


And...I will probably post some of my NYC pics. So there's your warning - non-crafty posts ahead. With my cute brothers in them.

Later skaters,
Janimal

Fabric Business / Gift Card Holder

Today I have a tutorial for making a fabric business card holder. This is a scrap buster and can be used for giftcards too, a gift within a gift. Check it out!

Ready to make one? It's pretty easy!

Start with two pieces of fabric, 5' by 10'. I used two different fabrics for this tute but you could use the same print if you like. And a piece of interfacing of some kind to give the holder some structure. I used a scrap piece of embroidery stabilizer because that's what I had. The stabilizer is slightly smaller than 5' x 10'. And that was fine. The scrap wasn't quite big enough and you can see in the picture my cutting was a bit wonky - that's ok too! (I love a project where a little wonkiness is ok.)

Put the two fabric pieces right side together, and lay the interfacing on top. Stitch around the outside using a 1/2' seam, leaving about a 2' opening for turning on the long side. You can see where I left the opening between the arrow below. It's important the opening is along the long side.

I forgot to take a picture, but clip the corners, then turn the fabric right side out.

And iron flat.

Fold the fabric in half, with the fabric you want for the outside color facing out. Put a piece of tape along the folded edge.

Stitch along the side of the tape. This stitched line will help the holder fold well.

Fold the sides to the inside 2'. Iron and pin in place. When you fold this in half, along that center line, the two sides should be flush.

Stitch around the outside edge. This stitches the pockets in place AND closes the open area you left for turning.

Ta-Dah! Ready for business cards, credit cards, whatever you like!

I made this one to hold a giftcard for a coworker's birthday. To figure out where the embroidery goes, I cut a strip of paper 5'x10', folded it like the business card holder, and used that as a template to figure out the size and placement of the embroidery.

I hope she likes her present!

As always with anything I make, I welcome your suggestions to improve.

Now I'm off to find places to link this to. If you have suggestions where I should link to, please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

J

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