DIY Baby Crinkle/Taggie Toy Tutorial

Recently I've become interested in sewing a baby krinkle-taggie toy for a baby gift.  After doing alittle online research, I was so surprised to find out that the "crinkle" inside these toys is nothing more than a piece of cellophane or an empty, clean bag! Bingo!  I can do this!  Off to JoAnns for some delicious fabrics and ribbons.  I love that this juvenile print isn't specifically baby, but will be eye-catching to the little baby girl I made it for, and the minky side is very soft for little fingers and faces.

It's quite easy to make, so let's get started.  Buy about 12-15 inches of a pretty woven print and a coordinating soft minky fabric.  Also be sure you have several colors of matching ribbon  and ric rac in different textures.  I used my Corelle luncheon plates, which are 9" across, to trace a circle onto the print, with a fabric pen, then cut it out.

Delicious colors!

I got so excited making this toy that I sometimes forgot to take photos along the way!  :)  But you'll also want to cut out the same sized circle of the minky and one of the cellophane or clean cookie/candy bag.  Then I decided to cut 3 ribbon/ric rac strips of each of the four I was using.  This worked out really well for the 9" circle.  I made the ribbons alittle bit different lengths and widths, just for variety and interest. They are about 3"-4" long.

Then pin the ribbons which are folded in half, in equal distances around the circle.  Mine had about 1.5" in between each one.

Next I laid the minky fabric, right side down, on top of the right side of the flowered fabric, and put the clean crinkle circle on top of that.  Pin them for sewing all 3 layers together.

And here's where I got excited and didn't take photos of the sewing.  Sorry!  But I sewed around the circle, with a seam allowance of about 5/8 inch so that even if a layer shifted a bit, all edges would be caught.  Leave a 1.5"-2" opening for turning the fabric right side out.  And before turning it, I trimmed the seam to about 1/4" and cut little slits from the edge to just near the seam, so the circle curves would lay flat when turned out.

After the circle was turned right side out and I saw that everything was good, I hand sewed the opening closed, attaching that last ribbon in that spot.  Then a careful line of top stitching all around the circle, about 3/8 inch from the edge, for the nice look of it and to be sure the ribbons are all secured.  Do you love the polka-dotted ric rac?!  Hobby Lobby.  The other ribbons came from JoAnns, some gross grain and some satin smooth.

And here she is, complete!  It's bright, colorful, and makes that wonderful crinkly sound that babies love.  It's safe for little mouths, and can be washed over and over...just do not put in the dryer, in order to keep the 'crinkle', crinkly!!  :)

Whenever you make something for the first time, you learn little tricks to try for the next one.  Next time I will try making the crinkle circle inside smaller, and NOT sewing it to the fabrics.  Perhaps it will lay flatter then, and be alittle easier to work with. It's just the cookie bag inside that isn't perfectly flat.  

Are you inspired?  What a cute gift!  And I like that it is circular...that's just a bit unique.  A triangular one would be fun too.  I think I'll be making some of these for my etsy shop, PerfectDarlings, in case you don't care to make one yourself.  But if you like to sew...this was really fun, and was complete in an hour.

Blessings!
Donna


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