Taggie Baby Blanket ~ Free Tutorial ~ how to make your own taggie blanket
My cousin’s just had her first baby, and I wanted to make her new baby something she could use straight away, so made her this little taggie blanket. It’s soft and cuddly on one side and and has lovely silky ribbon loops and I’ve included a crinkle sound for added interest.
Handcrafted Taggie Baby Blanket
If you fancy having a go yourself, below is how I did it, and here is a slight revision of how to make it more easily and even more secure.
If you do make one, please come back and post a comment or send me a photo – this is by far and above my most popularly-viewed post, so I would love to see the fruits of your labours!
Tutorial for how to make your own taggie blanket
Materials Needed
front fabric back fabric plastic for ‘crinkle’ (I used plastic from an A4 plastic wallet) (optional) strips of ribbon of varying colours, widths and textures (I used ten ribbons of 17cm length) threads (I used a contrasting one for the top-stitching, but if you’re not confident of sewing straight lines, go for a matching thread) fabric scissors pins tape measure- Cut the fabric and plastic lining. I used a soft, blanket-type material for the back.
- Pin the plastic to the wrong side (non-patterned side) of the front fabric.
- Loop each ribbon and pin them so that the loop lies inwards towards the middle of the front fabric (on the right-side), and their raw edges match up with the raw edges of the fabric. I put two or three on each side. Make sure you leave enough space between two ribbons on one side to be able to turn the fabric later, while ensuring that the ribbons will be secure.
- Pin the back fabric and the front fabric together, right-sides together (so that the ribbons etc are sandwiched between the two).
- Remembering to leave a gap for turning (8cm or so should be enough), and making sure no ribbons are going to be placed in the gap for turning, stitch all the way round with a simple running stitch. Each time you come to where a ribbon is (shown by the pins), use a zig-zag stitch back and forth a couple of times making sure each ribbon loop is very, very secure.
- Trim the corners before turning and use a chopstick to get sharp corners (but don’t poke so hard that you break your stitching!)
- Making sure the open seams are folded in to match where you’ve sewn them, pin the gap closed ready for sewing (or, if you haven’t included a crinkly plastic middle, you can iron your taggie blanket at this stage to close the gap).
- ‘Top stitch’ (i.e. sew over the edges of the pocket) around the taggie blanket for a nice finish. If you’re not confident to be able to sew in straight lines, use a matching thread, or use a nice contrasting thread to stand out.
- Made By Yours Truly! Admire your work and sit back with a nice cuppa or a wee tipple of your choice..
Note: I did sew a bell and a button onto the blanket initially, (very, very securely), but have now removed these from the blankets so as to make sure the blanket remains completely safe for newborns.
MadeByYoursTruly 
That’s lovely! I have made a few taggie blankets for friends’ babies too and they are always very well received. I made some of the tags ‘crinkly’ by sewing a quality street plastic wrapper inside a length of fabric. It worked really well.
Thank you. I like the idea of crinkly tags too, may try that on the next one. I also added small plastic rings to the first one I made but didn’t have any to hand for this one (my second).
This is such a lovely idea. Thank you so much for linking up to my blog party last weekend, I really appreciate it! Hope to see you again soon x
at what point do i take the pins from holding the tags in place since they will be inside of the blanket while i am sewing it (since it is inside out)…? (i am a beginner with sewing).
Hi Lindsay, if you pin the tags in place onto the Right Side (the side with the pattern on) of the main fabric, and then sew them on, you can take the pins out as you sew. (If you pin them perpendicular to the fabric edge, you can even sew over them slowly and carefully if you’re worried about the tag slipping). You can then take each pin out once the tag is sewn into place. If you haven’t already, take a look at the revised post https://madebyyourstruly.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/taggy-taggie-blanket-update-how-to-make-a-taggy-blanket-easily-even-more-secure-and-even-snugglier-with-free-tutorial/ for how to make it even snugglier and secure. Good luck and let me know how it goes! 🙂