For anybody who isn’t a a parent yet or hasn’t been around babies enough to know, infants love tags. Tags on clothes, rugs, purses, even their own toys. More often than not Noah will be more fascinated with the tag itself than the actual toy.
So in an attempt to fuel this tag addiction that she has, I made her her own stuffed toys covered in tags. It’s a set of “Sea” toys: seahorse, seaweed, and a clown fish (hence the confetti fabric).
To make your own set of “Tag Toys” you will need:
- scrap pieces of fabric
- scrap ribbon (I didn’t have any but did score a great deal on some for $.50 a spool)
- polyfiber filling
- felt
- sewing machine (or you could sew by hand)
- pins
- Sharpie
- scissors
I tried to add as much variety as I could. Each fabric has a different hand to it, the ribbon varies in size and some texture, and I added felt for a bonus texture.
Let’s Get Started
I did not use a pattern. Instead I just Googled “seahorse”. After I found an image I felt like I could replicate I folded the fabric in half with the front facing of the fabric touching.
Then use a pencil to sketch the shape out. Don’t worry if you are not the best artist… remember you are making this for a little one that will love it no matter what shape it is supposed to resemble.
Once the seahorse is cut out seperate the two pieces of fabric and place one to the side. Leave the remaining piece face down. Next, cut random lengths and colors of ribbon and pin them to the back side of the fabric.
After the ribbon is pinned down, use the sewing machine to stitch the ribbon to the fabric. I decided to add an extra texture to the seahorse by adding felt fins and attaching them the same way as the ribbon.
When all of the ribbon is attached and any other extras that you want to add, then begin to pin the two cutouts of the seahorse together. Pin them with the front face of the fabric facing each other. Just as they were when you cut them.
Next, sew the two pieces together.
As you get to each ribbon loop (or felt piece) turn each one so that it is in-between the two pieces of fabric. This is important! If not the loops will be on the inside of the seahorse.
Don’t completely stitch around the entire perimeter of the seahorse. Leave an opening. Through the opening pull the fabric through so that the exterior of the seahorse now shows. Use the polyfiber filling to stuff the seahorse.
To imitate the crinkly sound found in some toys I sanitized the cellophane from a bag of chips, cut it up and used if for stuffing also.
For a final touch I used a Sharpie to draw the eyes.
After you have finished stuffing, stitch the hole together.
Now, you have your very own hand made tag toy seahorse!
Making these really was easy and only took me about an hour and a half per toy. I am sure it could be much quicker but I still consider myself a beginner seamstress. And since I had some of the materials on hand I only spent around $10 making these tag toys. That’s not too bad since ten bucks is what it normally cost for one tag toy in the store.
Looks like my little girl critic approves! She enjoys playing with them and grasping for all the tags. It was really fun getting the opportunity to make her something she can play with.
Do you have a little one that is fascinated with tags? Have you ever made a toy for your little one? If so what did you make? I would love to try making more toys for her.
This was my attempt at the Summer Pinterest Challenge.
Hosted by these lovely ladies.
Kate @ Centsational Girl, Sherry @ Young House Love, Katie @ Bower Power, and Michelle @ Ten June
To see my inspiration tag toys check out this post from last week.
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Home Stories A 2 Z
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Liz Marie Blog
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