Posted on

Come down to the woods and play: Make your own woodland inspired play mat



You can create uniquely beautiful handmade play mat for your baby or toddler using felt, a sewing needle and plenty of creative juices. This project has been made using super strength stitching methods to ensure that it survives the exploratory nature of most toddlers. My toddler has been bouncing his wooden log all over the place and I can report that it is still in one piece! Woodland Playmat Tutorial by Peacock Crafts   What will I need? Materials

  • Felt in your chosen colours and complimentary coloured thread. (Be as creative as you like, but if you would like to follow my design I used the following colours from seamstar.co.uk; Chestnut/Cream/White/Red)
  • Toy Stuffing.
  • Embroidery Floss in Dark brown and Light Beige.
  • Cotton thread in white, red and dark brown.
  • Velcro Dots.
  • Square Green rug. (Ikea do a brilliant one – here)
  • (Optional) Woodland creatures such as Foxes, Rabbits, Teddy bears or Hedgehogs.

Woodland Play Mat Materials   You will also need;

  • A sewing needle or a sewing machine
  • Scissors
  • Something to mark the fabric with for cutting out the shapes, like dressmakers chalk.

Step by step instructions.

For the toadstools:
Go here and follow the excellent instructions on this blog: The Little House by the Sea blog I decided not to add on the windows and door details, but feel free to add them.

For the wooden log:
Step 1: Cut out two lengths of 75cm by 50cm in the chestnut felt.

Step 2: Placing the two right sides together, sew along one seam using either a back stitch (strong seam) or a sewing machine. If you use a sewing machine ensure that you stitch back over the initial stitch or lock stitch over the end of both seams to secure your sewing.

Woodland Play mat Step Three

In my vast craft collection I have a mega embroidery hoop to help with this step. Using the light brown embroidery floss, stitch a pattern on the brown felt which resembles bark. Don’t think too hard about this, I used backstitch in wonky lines up the length of the log and threw in a few knots in the bark. Alternatively you can stitch the lines and circles on with a sewing machine – this will probably be a lot quicker. See the photo above for ideas and inspiration.

Step 4: Secure a square of the light brown felt into a 9″ embroidery hoop. With the dark brown embroidery floss, stitch circles using backstitch or split stitch, depending on how thick you want your line. See the image above.

Step 5: Cut out the circles from the light brown felt allowing a 5cm seam allowance.

Step 6: Take your dark brown trunk felt and placing right sides together, sew up the remaining seam as before using either backstitch or with a sewing machine. Again if using a machine, ensure you lock the ends of the seams.

Step 7: Keeping the main body of the trunk inside out, place one of the light brown circles on the end of the trunk with the right side facing inwards. Pin the light felt to the dark felt and keeping a 2cm allowance all around, hand stitch the felt together.

Step 8: Place the remaining light brown circle on the other end of the trunk, again with right side facing inward. As above secure the felt with pins leaving a 2cm allowance  and stitch the felt together. This time leave a 5cm gap.

Step 9: Gently turn the log inside out through the 5cm gap you left. Then stuff the log with plenty of toy stuffing. Once the log is stuffed to your satisfaction, pin the gap closed and blanket stitch over the seam. Ta-dah – One wooden log pillow for your woodland fairies or elves to sleep on.