Zoo Play Mat All Set To Go

With a few difficulties and setbacks, I have finally successfully completed the first of the three play mat sets that I plan to make for friends who are having babies this year.  This is the zoo set.  I encountered some problems appliqueing the things onto the mat, mostly because I chose to use quite a bit of felt.  Felt is good to use for applique because it doesn't need to be zigzagged, but it does have some other issues.  The main one is that it is hard to heat bond the things into place, which I like to do for easier machine appliqueing.  It was hard to get the iron hot enough to bind the things into place without burning, flattening, and sometimes even stretching the felt.  It is finally all into place with only a few puckers, which may just add character to the mat overall.  I also had problems with the arches.  The piping that I use for the arches seemed to be a little stiffer than I have used in the past, and so they did not bend as easily.  I inserted ties for the animals along the material for covering the arches as I was sewing the seams, but then I had to take them off and hand sew them at a higher point on the arch so the animals would hang, rather than sit on the mat,  The hooks on top of the animals also needed to be shortened to make them hang even more off the mat. The hooks on the bottom of the mat that hold the arches into place were also sewn in incorrectly and did not make the arches actually arch.  They were almost flat, so I had to take them off and reattach them in a different angle to accommodate for that mistake. Finally, everything is finished.  The animals are a little crowded in the middle, but they will just have to be that way.  The poor baby will have to play off the mat and just bat the animals around as they hang from the mat, or maybe, not all of the animals need to be on at once.  That would allow the baby to lay on the mat and still have room for an animal or two.  Here are the results of my latest project, The Gifford Zoo play mat set.

This shows the animals from the side as they hang from the arches.

This shows the mat as it looks without the arches.

Molly Monkey eating a banana.

Ellie Elephant looks like she is eating a peanut, but not.

Zulu Zebra is the largest animal and really only fits well hanging from the middle of the arch.

Poor Lawrence Lion is certainly no King of the Jungle, or the zoo, for that matter.  His nose is a little too long and his mane a little too scraggly to be of much threat to anyone or anything.

I think Geraldine Giraffe is my favorite.  Check out that long face.  I love it.

Now, I will start making the animals for one of the ark sets.  I will be making some animals I have never made before, so that should be fun.