Sewing: Flower Play Mat

This flower play mat is a fun and easy project. It took me a whole weekend to finish, but, only because I was juggling cooking, laundry, house-cleaning, grocery-run, and library-run.

The project from start to finish, if one can devote uninterrupted time, should not take more than a few hours. Once the pieces are cut and ready, the sewing goes quite fast.

The fun part is to add little baby notions like mini rattle, cellophane etc tucked into the petals for the babies to discover and engage with. I can just picture little cuties getting their Tummy Time and grabbing a petal to have the rattle amuse them.

Of course, this was not for my babies who are much too old for a play mat. It's for a good friend who deserves all the happiness that life can give, who is expecting her babies this summer.

The idea came from DK Books Made for Baby, which has 50 beautiful projects to sew.

I went with a 28-inch diameter circle for the center. The petals are roughly a rounded rectangle cut in half, coming to about 10 inches tall and 13 inches wide. All the fabrics are baby flannel which was on sale at Fabric Depot. The batting for the flower center is actually two layers of fleece fabric plus a layer of quilt batting, so it is well-padded and snuggly warm to hang out in.

baby mat toy tote

"Remember E who works with me? We went to their wedding reception a couple of years ago?", D quizzed.

"Ummm... ya, I remember, they both are your colleagues, right?" I remembered, but, our paths hadn't crossed since.

"Well, they are expecting a baby."

"Wow! How nice!! Do they know if it is a girl or a boy?"

"Girl, I think. Anyway, we are having a baby shower at work for them. It would be nice if we could gift one of your baby quilts or something."

"Yay! sure, of course! that would be super! But wait, I gave away all my quilts. I don't have any ready. I could make one. When is the shower?"

"Coming Monday."

"Poop."

"You could just shop for some baby stuff. I wouldn't have a clue what to get..."

"Umm... let me see... I can make something. I like hand-made gifts for baby showers. Wish I had known earlier..."



I had always wanted one of these Quilted Baby Mats that double as a Toy Tote when my wee tot Ana was little. I was too exhausted during those post-partum days to make anything like this.

Thanks to my mom and dad, who stayed with us for several weeks after baby's arrival, doing all the cooking and cleaning, I was at least able to get myself together during the 30 days of maternity leave I got. Then it was off to work again and things were a blur.

I started sewing and crocheting in right earnest again only after Ana was close to a year old. Till then it was just a small crochet cap or sweater, a simple fleece hat or tops, that's it.



This was inspired by one of the projects in my craft book.

Open the hook-and-loop fasteners on the sides and it unfolds to a soft, plush, quilted baby mat.

Plenty of room for a baby to hang out and play with her toys. Till she learns to scoot on her belly or crawl, say till about 5 months or so, it can work as a take-along mat.

Have all the toys spread out on the mat, plant the baby on it, give her plenty of tummy time...

And, when it is time to get going, just scoop the baby up, gather up the mat and press the sides together, and effortlessly tote all her toys away.

I hope E likes it and finds it useful. I can't wait to see pictures of their little baby girl...

Well, that was my weekend project. It was a lot of fun. The flannel fabric print was just too adorable. I held on to the scraps, carefully cut out some of the animals to make patches out of them and applique them on other projects.

baby layette set

About 3 weeks ago, I was gung-ho about making a baby layette set for my dear friend's new baby girl. But, it took me a while to settle on what exactly I wanted to do.

I did not like some of the patterns I had used for my own little one, and I wanted to do something new.

Thanks to Julie's pattern, the crochet sweater was a lot of fun to make. I sort of improvised on her pattern a bit and added shell edging at the bottom of the sweater.

Instead of a crochet blanket, I made a baby quilt. To complete this set, I crocheted a cute-sy hat with ear flaps, and booties :-)



Since most of the baby girl's gifts are pink or purple, I decided to 'shake things up' a bit and make a green set for the little one. But, couldn't help adding the pink touches;-)