You Are My Sunshine- I Spy/Taggie Toy

 Several months ago I stocked up on felt and bought some of the items to make little I spy bags. Just yesterday I came across the box I had tossed the materials in and decided it was time to make something of it all. I had this idea of making them into cute little shapes (fish, turtle, whale), but then I thought it would be cute to combine the felt with scraps of ribbon to make an I spy bag/taggie. If you would like to make one, here is what you need:

Materials

1-2 bags of clear craft beads (any shape)

Alphabet beads, sequins, decorative buttons, any other little trinkets

Clear vinyl (1) 7x7" square (can be found in the home decor section at JoAnn Fabrics,

just take that giant roll up to the counter and have them cut you off a big strip)

Felt (2) 7x7" squares

3 different colors of ribbon (15" of each)

Thread, scissors, pins

Fabric Marker or Pencil

2 circles to trace (1 big, 1 small)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The size of your felt and vinyl will depend on how big the circular items you trace are.

My Corningware lid was a little bigger than 6" in diameter.

1. To get started, cut two squares of felt (measure the diameter of your biggest circle and add a 1/4"). Trace and cut both squares of felt into two large circles. Then take one and cut a smaller circle into the center of it. This will be the piece with the vinyl window. Cut the vinyl to match the size of the large circle.

 2. Take the ribbon and cut into (3) 5" pieces. You should have a total of 9 pieces of ribbon. Fold over the ribbon and pin the raw edges to the top of the solid felt circle. About 1/4" of ribbon should overlap the felt. Grab the circle with the hole, lay it on top of the vinyl circle and pin in place. Stitch closely around the inner edge (pictured below). Place the piece with the vinyl window on top of the piece with the ribbons. One pin at a time, remove and re-pin so that the pins are on the surface of the circle with the vinyl window (but are still holding the ribbon in place). Sew together leaving a 1 1/2" gap so that you can fill it up. Layer in objects and beads. Leave enough room so that the items can move around and so that you can sew it up without having anything in the way. With your machine, stitch over the gap, making sure to backstitch or "fix" at both ends. Examine edges to make sure there are no holes.

3. Remove any unwanted threads or excess vinyl around the edges. If desired, press ribbon edges to flatten. It's done!

Shortly after making the sun I realized that I had some brown and green ribbon left over from our wedding- score! So of course I had to make an apple. As you can see, you can make pretty much anything. Happy sewing!

P.S. I'd love to see your creations... if you make one, comment and leave me a link!

This tutorial is currently being featured over at Nap Time Crafters.