A fun baby gift

I have finally had time to do a little crafting and actually finished a project that I have been working on!  It feels good to be able to be creative and I am excited to share the project on here.  Recently I found this really cute homemade baby toy on pintrest and thought it would be a great gift for a friend that was due to have a baby at the beginning of May.  I got started a few weeks ago with fabric and planning, but it was this UFO link party my friend was hosting that helped me to finish the project. 

I decided to make three smaller ones and use all three of the little boy's initials, HDD.  After picking out and prepping the fabric, black and white for the back because babies love contrast, and different fun patterns for the front, I needed to make my pattern.  Instead of drawing the letters out by hand, I printed them from my computer so they would be the same size.

Then I pinned the patterns to the fabric and cut those out.  I realized that I didn't allow for a seam allowance in the pattern so when cutting out I actually went out about a quarter of an inch on each piece of fabric.  Once I had fronts and back for each of the three letters, I got some cotton batting and used the pattern pieces to cut out batting to go in the middle.  I wanted to give the letters a little more form.

It was then time to pick out ribbon and pin the pieces together.  I tried to pick out ribbon that was different colors or textures to add more interest.  I laid the pieces with right sides out and pinned where I wanted to attach the ribbon.  I sewed around the letter about one fourth of an inch from the edge.  It was a little tricky to get the hang of making sure the ribbons didn't move and also being consistent and neat with the stitching.  I went around the letter twice so that it would be sturdy enough to stand up to a baby.

That is really it!  Once I got the hang of the process with the first letter, the second two were much quicker.  I then just attached a link to them so that they can be attached to a play gym or stroller.  I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make these work and I think the finished product turned out pretty cute.

Here they are laid out.  It would also be great to add a layer of crinkly material so that they made noise, or a different texture of fabric to the back so that they felt different.  There are many ways to make these fun and interesting for babies.

Here is a picture of the back.  I really wanted to use black and white as babies can see that well and like the contrast.

I am linking this project with the UFO challenge that my friend at The Bean Sprout Notes is hosting.  She encouraged me to participate and I am glad that I did because I got this done in a timely manner!