Felt Car/House play mat

From: Cook, Clean, Craft

Who can we find behind the doors and windows of this little red house?

     

Open it up…

…and what do we see…

   

…and a whole little world awaits:

 

Materials:
25x30 inch (62.5 x 75cm) piece of green craft felt
2 sheets of red felt
1 sheet of blue felt
Medium weight iron-on interfacing
Sheets/scraps of different colours of felt
Tacky craft glue
Velcro
Scissors
Quilters chalk
Thread, sewing machine or needle to hand sew
Instructions:
I started with a sketch of the layout (sorry, no fancy drafting software here ), and worked out the dimensions based on the green felt I’d bought by the metre at my local craft chain. (For some reason, I’m working in inches here although I grew up with metric system – go figure!)

Mark the layout from the sketch onto the felt with chalk and cut around the outside.

   

Cut out long black strips approximately 2 inches wide for the roads (I went with straight roads rather than curvy roads for simplicity, but go crazy with what suits you!). Arrange on the play mat and glue in place. Cut out 1/2 inch wide strips of white felt for the centre lines on the road, and glue in place. (Sorry, no progress photos here – I’m sure you can imagine!)
Cut out various buildings etc from different coloured felt pieces and glue in place (when you’re happy with the layout).  The play mat will fold up better if you don’t have anything stuck across the fold lines (which I had marked out in chalk).

I put way too much thought in the layout – Police station as you come into town (as a warning to visitors), petrol station as you leave town, can’t have the hospital next to the construction site (although I’m not sure next to a zoo is that good!), car park across the road from the shops, farm on the edge of town and on and on I went…
Here are some photos of the details:

Train Station and Lake	Hospital with Helipad
Zoo	Police Station
Construction Site	Fire and Petrol (Gas) Stations
Swimming Pool	Farm and Playground
Supermarket (Coles)  and Hardware Store (Bunnings)	Row of houses
Car park	Garden

I didn’t make templates for any of these, but you should be able to work them out from the pictures. If you’d like any more details or a sketch or two, let me know in the comments or send me an email. I hand cut everything with sewing shears and a craft knife (no fancy cutting machine here!). I used string for the chains on the swing and marked the clock on the train station with a regular ball point pen. Everything else I just cut straight from the felt, or drew on with a quilt chalk pen or disappearing fabric marker before cutting.
A few tips: have a container to put your felt scraps into where you are working and another container for pieces to small to use. I was constantly trimming and those little pieces went everywhere! Also, don’t trim over another piece of felt – that wonderful property of felt sticking to itself is a big nuisance if you do! (Trust me, I made both these mistakes more than once!)
Make cuts along each side of the play mat for the sections that fold up.

   

Sew strips of Velcro to the handle sections of the green play mat.
Cut out 2 pieces 6x7 inch and 2 pieces 6x6 inch in red felt for the outside walls. Cut out 2 pieces 4x6 inch and 2 pieces 2x6 inch in blue felt for the roof and handle. Cut out 1 piece 6x7 inch to reinforce the floor. Cut and iron on medium weight interfacing to the red wall, blue roof  and green floor pieces.
Cut out pieces of felt for the door, windows and apple tree (and any other embellishments you want) for the outside of the house, and glue in place.

Cut out 16 tabs of red felt (approx. 1inch x 2 inch) for the house closures. Sew Velcro circles to the tabs – the grippy, rough ones that stick to the felt.

 

I didn’t have any red thread and made a mess of sewing the Velcro on, so I cut out more red felt (1 inch square) to cover my sewing. This is optional!

   

Glue the tabs in position on the back of the green play mat, and then glue the red walls, blue roof and green floor pieces (all with interfacing) in position.

Cut out the hole of the handle using scissors or a craft knife. I also rounded off the tabs so they weren’t as bulky.

Fold it up into a house, fill with cars and take it somewhere fun  to play!

Unfold, get out the cars and start playing.

   

This play mat was inspired by the one at A Girl and a Glue Gun, the playhouse at Homemade By Jill and the take-along toy barn at Serving Pink Lemonade, as well as heaps of others I’ve seen in blog-land.
It’s a handy take-anywhere bag with plenty of space to carry cars and other toys. As an added bonus, it’s big enough to hold all my son’s cars, making a cute storage box in the playroom!
If you use this tutorial, please let me know in the comments or send me an email!

Christmas finger Puppets

As you know, I have a hard time sitting still and watching tv or a movie without keeping my hands busy. Drives my family crazy sometimes. So, the other night, while the family was watching Shrek 4 (which we loved), I whipped up these little guys.



And since Christmas is all about giving, I thought I would share the patterns with you.



These would be fun little gift for the little kids in your life. Or to go along with some of your favorite Christmas books or movies.



They are pretty quick to make and all you need are a few scraps of felt, hot glue and google eyes, and you are on your way.



*Click here for the free download.

Felt Toy Truck

Remember how book giving is on the Christmas-gift-list this year?  

(Check out my girl book/gift idea here.)

Well, my little boy will get a personalized little gift with his new books too.

We checked out The Three Little Rigs (by David Gordon) from the library a few weeks ago....

He ab-so-lute-ly fell in love with the book.  And loved reciting parts of it as I read it to him.  We returned the book to the library so that other kids could borrow the book.....and he was crushed.

So I hurried over to amazon.com and ordered it for Christmas.
(And I think paid $0.24 because it was used but in 'like new' condition.  Plus shipping.  Great deal.)

And to accompany his new little truck book, a plush little friend........

 **I'm sure there are plenty of girl truck lovers out there too.......so this would be just as cute for your little girl.

And you know, there were plenty of other books that I couldn't help but plop into the Amazon shopping cart.  Trucks seem to be one of his little boy passions lately.

The soft truck was created with headlight eyes and a front grill smile.

What a great new buddy to read his books with.

Sometimes a little homemade gift is a perfect match for new books.

. . . . . . . . . . . 

Would you like to make your own felt truck?

You'll need to start by drawing out a basic side shape for your truck.  Cut it out of paper and use it as a pattern to cut out 2 pieces of felt in whatever color you'd like.  (I used all straight edges and and used a ruler to help me keep the edges even and precise.)  Then, cut out a long strip that's as wide as you'd like the width of the truck to be and long enough to go all the way down and around the center of the truck shape.

(My paper pattern piece for the truck side pieces measured about 6.5 inches tall and 10.5 inches wide.  The center strip measured about 6 inches wide and 34 inches long.  That may help if you're trying to make one in a similar size.)

Then, lay your strip down under your machine needle, several inches from the end.   Then, place the bottom edge of the truck under the needle as well and line it up with the edge of the long strip.  Begin sewing along the bottom of the truck, starting your stitch about in the middle of the bottom of the truck.  (Use 1/4 inch seam allowance.)

**Keep in mind that you will always keep the long strip straight up and down under the needls and won't ever curve it or turn it as you're sewing.  You will only be manipulating the truck piece and will move it as you go.  But keep that bottom strip lined up, while using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

When you get to the first corner, stop a 1/4 inch from the bottom edge then pull your truck shape, pivoting the fabric around the needle.......

........and keep pulling it and arranging it until that next edge is lined up with the bottom strip.  It is essential that you stopped 1/4 inch from the edge in the last step, before you turned your truck shape, so that the fabric will line up in this step.

Use a pin (or something small) to help that corner lay flat before continuing to sew.

Then continue to sew around the next corner the same way as the first.  

Then when you get to a corner that is inverted like this one.......

......pass the bottom edge a 1/4 inch......

........then start pulling the top fabric over and down so that it will line up with the strip below, that is still lined up straight up and down.

Here it is all lined up on the right edge with a bit of manipulated fabric above.

Continue around the rest of the corners the same way.  Then stop about a 1/2 inch from where you started with the other end and leave your tail of fabric.  Here's what it should look like.

Then flip your truckover with the sewn edge facing down, and place your second truck shape on top.  Pin the bottom edge where you'll be starting your next seam, making sure to match up this side directly opposite the other side.  If you don't match this side up just how the other side is, your truck will turn out all funky and twisted.

Sew all the way around the other edge the same way, making sure to place the strip side on the bottom and only move the side truck shape as you sew all the way around again.  Leave the bottom open in the same way.

On each side of the truck, the corners that are inverted will pull funny after turning it right side out without clipping it first.  So clip right in the corners, making sure to not clip through the seam.

Then turn your truck right side out, poke out the corners and stuff with batting.  If you're truck is lumpy, move the batting around and shove more in there to even it out.

Then tuck the raw ends towards the inside and hand-stitch it closed.  

(Need help with hand-stitching?  Click here.)

Next, the tires.  

I made big front tires and small back tires......more like a semi truck with a flat bed.

So I found circle cups in my house to create 2 large front tires and 4 smaller back tires.  I sewed all the way around the circles, except for an opening along one side.  Then I turned them right side out...........

.......and shoved them with batting.

Then I hand-stitched the opening closed.

(Need help with hand-stitching?  Click here.)

Then I created smaller circles in a grey color and cut out little half circles all the way around each circle.  

I was trying to create a hub cab look.

Then I used a needle and tread to secure each tire to the sides of the truck.  I then hot glued the hub caps to the tire but hand-stitching would work well too.

Finally, I created eyes, eyebrows, and a curved grill shape for the mouth......all with felt.  I used glue and hand-stitching to attach the pieces to the front of the truck.  (I didn't actually hand-stitch all the pieces....but it's up to you.)

I also created front windshields out of rectangle pieces of felt and then a side smoke stick thing-y for the side.  What's that thing called?  Anyone?

Make sure to personalize your truck and make it look like one in a book or just how your little guy (or even girl) would like it.

And that's it.

All ready to be loved on and squished.........while reading the new books.