Tags

My son is fascinated with tags.  He chews tags on everything and will tip himself over trying to grab a tag that's just beyond his reach.  I think lots of babies are like this, which is why someone invented those cute tag blankets that you can buy.  But seriously... I am not in a position to pay even $10 for a little blanket that has cute tags all around it.
What's a mom to do???  Well, my first thought was that I could make one.  (Actually, my first thought when I want or need just about anything is "I could make that")  I'd just have to go to a quilt shop and buy a bunch of "by the yard" ribbon, a little minkey, and be on my merry way.  Then I remembered that I really don't have any extra money right now (payday is so close...) and when I get a project in my head... well I kind of obsess over it until it's done (unless that project's name is 'quilt for my bed,' then I might drag my feet a little... but I have the fabric, so one day, it will be done...It's just so BIG).  In other words, I really wanted to do this NOW... he's obsessed with tags NOW... why can't we have some extra cash NOW?!
So, as I was trying to get my stinker to sleep tonight, I formulated a plan.  This project was taking over my mind, and I have other things to do, so I needed to get it done so I could think about other things.  (Like what I need to do for my new job to actually make money...)
I won't bore you with my whole thought process, but I'll show you some photos of the process... eventually.
First, I stole tags from various items of clothing.  Most of it was in my sewing bin, and the items are waiting for me to get creative with them, a couple of the tags came from t-shirts I had in my drawer (who reads tags anyway? I could have stole from every shirt in Steven's closet and he wouldn't have noticed... but I didn't need that many tags, and I digress...).
Then, I located a piece of fleece.  It was originally purchased (from the remnant bin) to make the inside of a knitted hat warm and soft (the yarn I used wasn't very soft or thick).  I used some more of it a few weeks ago for Steven's Lost Boy costume.  What I had left was the perfect size for what I wanted to do.
I had a little trouble figuring out what to pair with the blue fleece, but when I was cutting tags, I spotted a polo shirt that we bought at DI for Steven, but it ended up being too... tight? short?.. something... and it was in my "do something creative with me" pile.  It was perfect.  Light blue, with stripes.  And soft.
I also gathered some other fun-textured things: gold ric rac from last Christmas (stockings), elastic, ribbon... I wanted some variety.
Then I cut the 2 fabrics to the same size and got to pinning.  I'll let the pictures tell the rest:

 

This was a BEAST to sew... given a do-over, I would find a different way to do it that didn't include sewing over the button (placket?)

Haha, I left the pocket functional :) I think I'm very clever...

All done!

I decided to help hold the two pieces together in the middle, I'd add some fun buttons.  Don't worry, the anxiety mom in me came out and said I should probably be really careful about this and I sewed them on there GOOD.  And I'll probably let paranoid mom check the integrity of the button sewing job frequently, to make sure they aren't going to pop off and try to go down the baby's throat.

Guys, I was so excited when I was done, I almost wanted to go and wake up my sleeping son to see him play with it.  But, cried himself to sleep tonight... that's how hard it was to get him to sleep (I can almost never let him do that, it's just too sad for me... except when I've tried everything else).  Plus, waking a sleeping baby (that's not in danger) is, like, 100 kinds of stupid, I'm pretty sure.  So, tomorrow will be like Christmas... I'm just not sure for who. ;)