There are many products and toys available for babies. But, many of these wonderfully adorable items come with an expensive price-tag. You might be wondering: since babies love to put everything into their mouths, anyways, do I really need to buy a new teething toy? Or isn’t there a way that I can make my own teething toy? Well, you guessed right if you thought there was. We’ll show you how to make a teething toy on a budget, and we bet baby will hardly know the difference!
For this DIY project, you will need the following items:
- Two, XL-clean shirts: They can be new shirts or old ones, so long as they are sanitized! Just ensure that any coloration will not leak out of the shirts when they are wet Sometimes new reds or pinks “run” in the wash. You do not want baby ingesting any toxic dye.
- Scissors: Any old pair good enough to cut through the fabric you’ve chosen will do!
- A Writing utensil (Pencil, cloth marker, etc.): We will be using this to create a guide line to cut along on the shirt, so you will want the color to show up on the t-shirt. And since this will be going into a little one’s mouth, try to choose a child-safe brand. You could always “eyeball it” if you’re good at cutting straight line.
- A ruler or measuring-tape: to help make the guiding marks to cut across and get the right size cloth strips.
- And Sewing kit: A simple needle and thread will do if you plan to sew by hand, or a machine; your choice!
Once you have the items needed and a clean workspace, you are ready to begin!
- Begin by spreading out the t-shirt across a clean surface.
- Then, use a ruler to measure about 4 inches from the bottom rim of the shirt.
- Use the guidance of a ruler or measuring tape to draw a dashed horizontal line across the shirt, four inches above the rim of the t-shirt, and parallel to the rim.
- Next, use scissors to cut through both sides of the shirt, separating the four inch segment from the remainder of the shirt.
- Cut another strip from the same shirt, four inches from the bottom, to create a second strip.
- Repeat steps 1-5 for the second shirt, so that you will have four strips total.
- Sew along the open edges of the strips, sewing the gaps closed to make solid strips.
- Then tie all four strips together, knotting them in the center.
- Tie a knot in each of the little “legs.”
- Check the toy over for any loose threads or safety hazards, and then it’s done!
The pattern that you tie in the knots can be more creative to create a little creature, such as an octopus teething toy. But, the important thing is that the knots makes the toy easy to grab and hang onto for baby, as well as provide a spot to chew on. So there you have it. A do it yourself baby teething toy!