Patchwork Penguin Baby Blanket and Plushie

Some friends of ours are expecting a baby next month, a little girl. I wanted to make something fun, and decided that a nice monogrammed taggy baby blanket would be just right.

I love making taggy toys for babies. From the very beginning, the Monkey has loved the tag on his little stuffed dog, Spot. When he was younger he would suck on it. As he grew, he started playing with it and putting his fingers in it to hold it close as he sucked on his fingers. In fact, Spot's tag got so much love that it fell off, and the Monkey said he didn't like Spot as much without the tag. So I made spot a new tag with some soft satin ribbon. There's just something about tags that lots of babies seem to love.

I figured a taggy blanket could provide warmth over a car seat, be a good tummy time floor mat, and also be a good toy, with all the tags to pull on, suck on, and twiddle.

I wanted the blanket to have a patchwork feel to it, and I wanted a mixture of fabrics and textures. I also knew the mom-to-be dislikes pink as much as I do. So I walked into JoAnn's looking for some really cute, fun, not-boyish, not-pink fabrics. After loading up my cart with a bunch of different things, I found this wonderful patchwork penguin fabric. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a winner!

The fabric included some woven cotton, some flannel, and some nice soft minky. And since it was already pieced together, it saved me from having to patch something together myself. With such a fun patchwork fabric on one side, I felt a nice, simple, coordinating solid flannel would make for a good backing. After finding the off-white flannel, I found the black ribbon with white polka-dots and knew I had everything I needed. I pulled some solid black fabric from my stash and some nice fuisible to monogram the blanket.

When I went to the cutting table, I discovered that there was just over a yard left, and the remaining end-of-bolt 15" would be half price. I couldn't pass it up! That was just enough to make a couple of plushy toys!

I free-handed a penguin shape and cut it out of the fabric. I pulled some orange fabric out of my stash and made a diamond for the beak and free-handed some feet. I then stitched it up, stuffed it, and closed up the opening, and I had a cute little penguin plushy to go with the blanket. (There was even enough fabric left that Baby Brother got a penguin too!)

This was a fun project, and the blanket with matching plushy made a great gift for a special little girl.