I recently saw another mummy with a tag cloth for her bub to play with while traveling in the car. I loved the idea of having a bright and colourful item with different textures and scope for random attachments for Gwen to explore with hands and mouth. So I decided to make my own.

I chose two very different fabrics. the green cotton flannel comes from an op shop and cost about $0.50/m. the multicolour cotton is from godknowswhere and from memory was about $3/m.

Step 1: Cutting

First cut both of pieces of fabric to size. I didn't use a ruler. I just laid it out on the cutting mat and cut vaguely what I wanted. It worked out just over 20cm square.
Cut a variety of ribbons around about the same length. make sure they're not so big that your bubs hand will get stuck in them.

Step 2: Arrange

Take one of the pieces of cloth and one of the ribbons.
Fold the ribbon in half, place it sticking inwards on the cloth, which is facing good side up, and sew across it. This is the tricky part that will allow the finished piece to have the ribbons poking out between two seams, which is a very neat and safe way to sew the ribbons in. By the end of the project the ribbons will be secured by three lots of stitching.
Leave a gap and then place the next ribbon. Repeat until you've filled up all sides.

Step 3: Sew Together

Take the other square of cloth and place it on top of the first piece, good side down.

Start half way down one side and sew the two pieces together about 5mm from the edge. Don't sew the whole way around. Stop before you get back to your original stitching leaving enough room to turn the tag cloth the right way out.

Step 4: Turn Inside Out

Turn the tag cloth the right way out. Pull out the corners so that they are nice and pointy. your ribbons should now all be facing outwards.
Fold over the extra cloth formed by the gap you left and sew in another seam on top of the tag cloth, about 5mm from the edge. You can use a decorative stitch or contrasting thread if you want.

Step 5: Done

Snip off thread ends and wash. Your cloth is now ready. You can attach all sorts of teething rings and other things via the tags.

Saftey: Just be sure to only let them use this toy while under supervision as it could be a choking hazard. Also check the strength of the ribbons now and then. I found the yellow ones disintegrated after just two washes.

This was one of my bubs fav toys until she was about 10 months old.