“Pei-pei,” our second child’s blankie, has been referred to as our third child. That was in the days before we had a third child, and it was appropriate, as he went everywhere with us and is immortalized in countless family photos from all over the continent and the globe! These days, pei-pei stays at home, but he still occasionally will pose for a picture, like this one:

Blankie is a member of our family!

Baby brother has a blankie, too.

After seeing how much the boys love their blankies, I wanted to make some of my own. I had this minky blanket fabric that matches our baby’s pei-pei, so I thought I would make some extra blankies for him and for gifts… more on how that turned out, later!

In the past, I had made some little stuffed animals with ribbon “taggies,” since it seems like that is usually little kids’ favorite part of any blanket or animal. Here are a couple of the dinosaurs I made with taggie spines, before they got stuffed.

Dinosaur lovey with taggies on spine, before she gets stuffed.

Finished dinosaur taggie lovey

Our baby’s lovey has a white bear head in the center, but I decided to add some taggies around the edge of the new blankets instead (foreshadowing: this was a mistake!). There are two ways to add the taggies:

• For a complex shape like the dinosaurs, put the two sides of the fabric with right sides together and pin the taggies in place facing inward. Then sew around the perimeter, leaving a small gap to turn it. Finally, flip the whole thing , stuff it, and close the seam.
• For a simple shape like a blanket, you can put the wrong sides together and fold under the raw edges, as shown below. Pin on the taggies, and sew around the edge to close the seams and secure the taggies.

Turn the raw edges of the fabric under and pin the taggies in place before sewing.

Finished DIY lovey blanket with taggies

I think these taggie blankets will make great gifts. And mnie will have to be gifts, because, as I hinted above, the new blankies did not go over with our toddler. As I mentioned, his blanket is made of the same material, but it does not have the taggies and has a white teddy bear head in the center. When I showed him one of the new taggie blankets, expecting him to grab it excitedly, he instead stared with a look of horror and shook his head, backing away. I can just read his mind: “Oh my goodness! Mommy decapitated my pei-pei and added these horrible garish tags to it! This is an abomination! Help!”

Well, hopefully, some lucky baby will start off with these taggie blankets and learn to love them for what they are.

“Jewels”