I have a really hard time paying good money for things that I know I could make on my own! It’s not because I’m cheap (I could stand to be a little more frugal), in fact, I don’t know what’s behind it, but it’s just the way I am… so there.  In any case, as a gift for my infant twins, a friend gave us this amazingly adorable thing.

My girl-twin LOVES it, my boy twin doesn’t. The pacifier that the duck is holding is not the pacifier that they are used to, and while my daughter doesn’t seem to care, my son is pretty picky about what exactly is going to soothe him.

Additionally, I am not sure how one would go about cleaning the pacifier on this thing. I mean a really good, heavy-duty, kill all the nasty germs cleaning.  The pacifier is sewn on there pretty well, so there is no separating the two.  I was pretty sure I could find under my roof all the things necessary to make this very sweet little contraption, and make it so that it suited our needs!  I think it would make a pretty sweet gift.

This is all you need to complete the project:
1.    The pacifier that you would like to use

2.    A small stuffed animal that can be held in the child’s hand (I can’t stand stuffed animals, and we have a TON, so I was happy to repurpose one. Or rather just purpose it because let’s face it, it’s not getting played with the way it is right now.)

3.    Some ribbon (I regularly hit up the dollar bin at Target or Michaels for this kind of thing. I find it very handy for many projects.)

4.    A needle and thread.

I really did happen to have each of these items in my house (and it’s a good darn thing, because with a four year-old and infant twins, I wasn’t going to make a “quick run” anywhere to pick something up.)

Step 1.

Cut about 10 inches of ribbon. You want it to be long enough that you can double knot it and tie a bow to secure the pacifier to the animal.

Step 2.

Use the needle and thread to sew the ribbon to the nose of the stuffed animal (note: beanie babies work great for this little project.) You do not need to be a master seamstress for this activity. It is probably even easier than sewing on a button.  Just “baste” it (as they say in the sewing business), but make sure that it’s really secure.  As much as you may be tempted to safety pin it on, please don’t. You wouldn’t want that thing to pop open!
It will look like this:

Step 3.

Once the ribbon is sewn on to the animal, tie a double knot around the loop of the pacifier, and then make a cute little bow.

Voila!

It literally took me five minutes, four of which were spent ransacking drawers to find the needle and thread.

~by Colleen Lindstrom