How to Make a Fabric Panel Playmat

Supplies:

• iron
• 2 fabric play panels
• cotton batting, roughly the size of your panels
• tape measure, optional
• scissors
• embroidery and sewing needles
• pins
• sewing thread
• perle embroidery floss
• sewing machine

 

 

Steps:

1. Press the two panels.

 

 
2. Trim the selvage edges off of both panels.

 
3. Lay one panel face up on your batting. Smooth out any wrinkles.

 
4. Pin the panel to the batting, just enough to secure to make the final trim of batting to panel size.

 
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5. Trim off excess batting.

 

 
6. Lay second panel right side down on top of first panel, right sides are together. Adjust your pins for sewing.

 
7. Sew around all four sides leaving a 4 - 5 inch opening for turning. I used the edge of the fabric and the presser foot edge to set the seam width, it is approximately 1/4 inch. Note: Unlike the whole cloth quilt with ric rac trim I did not put a piece of tissue paper under the batting while sewing. I probably should have, it helps the feed dogs work more smoothly.

 

 
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8. Tie your threads at the beginning and end of the seam, unless you began and ended with a back stitch. Snip corners.

 
9. Turn right side out and finger press or use an iron to flatten the seams.

 
10. Turn the seam allowance in where you left your opening for turning. Pin and blind stitch closed.

 

 

 
11. I ironed the mat and seams with a steam iron to make sure it laid flat before tying my square knots. This is optional, but I believe it helps.
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12. Next the three layers were tied together using an embroidery needle and perle cotton floss. As the mat is two sided with different images on each side I roughly measured the 8 - 10 inches between ties, as recommended for this type of batting. When I found my spots for tying I checked the other side for placement on that side as well. Trim off excess floss leaving about 3/4 of an inch. I was under strict instructions from the three year old that the mat needed to be flat :) Besides who wants a tie right in the middle of the road.

 

 
13. The mat is ready to play with now. I had to test drive a dump truck myself before handing it over to the grandson.

 

 

 
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cybergrannie
Gold Feedback Medal for All Time! 949 Feedbacks

March 27, 20170 found this helpful

Your project is so neat and looks like it is really appreciated - makes me recall making cloth books for my grandkids - many years ago. Thanks for an interesting and useful post.