little tag blanket

None of our oldest three were enchanted with tags,

so I thought that those toys/blankets

with little tags sticking out all over were kinda cute

but pretty much useless.

Then Baby Boy came along.

He loves tags.

If a toy has a tag, that's what he goes for.

He feels them, chews on them, sucks on them...

He even discovered the long tags on the bumper in his crib,

pulled them into his bed,

and chewed on them until he gagged.

I felt like such a spoil-sport when I cut them off

that I decided to make a special little tag blanket for him.

It is about 6 1/2 inches square and is bristling with tags!

One side it's soft, blue flannel.

And the other is brown waffle-knit

that I upcycled from an old t-shirt.

It's always gratifying when your handiwork

is just as much of a hit as you hoped it would be.

A quick note about the variety of ribbons I had in my stash to use: Bits of ribbon pop up all over, sometimes in surprising places. Keep your eyes open for them and don't sneeze at small pieces; they can come in handy. To illustrate I numbered the ribbons and will tell you where I got each piece.
1. This used to be a useless drawstring on a pair of my shorts. I pulled it out because it was annoying me and added it to my stash because it is cotton and has a cool texture.
2. Came in a "goodie bag" of notions I picked up for a few cents at a local thrift store. It was only about 8 inches long and was wired. I had plenty of it for this project, though. (And I pulled the wires out.)
3. I think I actually bought this one at Joann's for Sweet Pea's nursery. This project used up the last little bit I had of it.
4. Left over from Ben's coworkers' Christmas gifts.
5. One of the popular baby gifts here in the United States are these little outfits packaged into gift sets by the company that makes them. They often use see-through bags tied with real fabric ribbon with nice prints or textures to finish off the look. I save these ribbons and use them for projects like this.
6. More baby gift set packaging.
7. Partial spool of ribbon I picked up at the thrift store.
8. Found in the bargain section of a local store. ($0.13 for a mini-spool of ribbon? Yes, please!)
9. Huh. There is no #9 on the picture. Ooops. I guess my brain leaped to a nice, round number. :)
10. Very cool train ribbon that came as part of the packaging for scrapbook supplies.

Disclaimer: I AM NOT ADVOCATING HOARDING! Please, don't just compulsively keep random bits of supplies you'll never use. If you cannot honestly project using, say, the ribbons that came on your baby gifts within the next six months don't keep them. However, DO look for supplies and inspiration in unlikely places. You might be surprised at what you find.