3 Quick & Easy Crafts for Playtime

July 22, 2022 Babies & Kids, Crafts & Projects

Featuring: Studio E Fabrics Under Construction by Dana Saulnier

Pattern Design by: Sally Gauntlett

Sewn by: Sally Gauntlett

#1) Road Map Quilted Play Mat

The Studio E ‘Under Construction’ range includes a super cute road map fabric panel which can easily be made into a quilted play mat which can be rolled up and taken with you wherever you go. You could even make yourself a fabric tote bag using my tutorial here to carry it in – perfect!

Technique: Quilting and binding

Skill Level: Intermediate

Finished Size: 45 x 36“ (1.14m x .91m)

You will need

Studio E Under Construction Playmat Panel measuring 45 x 36” - SKU 6066P-77
Fabric for the back of the quilt measuring 45 x 36“. I’m using ‘Red Brick’ from the Under Construction collection by Studio E SKU 6057-88
Quilt wadding or batting (you could use an old blanket or thick fabric if you prefer)
Fabric for binding – You’ll need enough fabric to make a piece of binding for each edge of the play mat. This needs to be as long as each side of your quilt x 3”. Binding can be pieced together from scraps if you don’t have the length. I’m using Hex Bolt SKU 6056-77 and Yellow Diagonal Stripe SKU 6055-44 from the Studio E Under construction collection
Safety pins
Cutting Mat
Rotary Cutter
Long Ruler
Quilting/walking sewing machine foot (helpful but not essential)

Let’s get started…

Cutting

If you’re using the pre-cut panels of Studio E fabric, your front and back pieces won’t need any cutting – nice and easy.

To cut your binding pieces, measure the bottom and sides of your main fabric and cut a strip for each side measuring 3” x the length of your fabric adding on approximately 2” for wiggle room at each end.

Press your binding

Once your binding strips are cut, take them to the ironing board and press each strip in half, wrong sides together, so that the long edges meet.

Once each strip is pressed in half, press each side edge in to meet your middle pressing line. Repeat for all your binding strips.

These binding edges will later form the edges of your playmat. For now, you can leave them to one side.

Let’s make a quilt sandwich…

Before we can quilt, we need to form our quilt ‘sandwich’. To do this you’ll need to lay your backing fabric on the bottom, right side down. Then place your wadding in the middle and then finally add your road panel fabric on top, with the right side facing up, so that you have three layers of fabric with your wadding sitting nicely in the middle.

Make sure everything is laying nice and flat and that there are no folds or puckers in any of your layers.

TIP: I like to hang my layers over my ironing board and smooth them out as I go. If you prefer you can also do this on a large table or smooth floor.

Once your three layers are sandwiched together, pin them together at random with safety or quilting pins placing them frequently all over the fabric (approximately 5” apart). This will stop your fabrics shifting around too much when you come to quilt.

Let’s get sewing…

Let’s quilt. When it comes to quilting there are many ways you can do it. I machine quilted my play mat using my sewing machine’s quilting foot but if you don’t have a quilting/walking foot, you could absolutely use a normal foot or hand quilt through the layers using a running stitch and a strong thread. The quilting process is just a means of holding the three layers of fabric together.

Likewise, you can choose the design of your quilt stitching. I chose to follow the grey areas of the panel, but you could follow the road sections or, if you are an experienced quilter, you could free motion quilt if you prefer.

TIP: Set your sewing machine’s stitch to a long length when quilting. I find this helps the fabric feed through more evenly and it looks nicer overall.

Remove all your pins and give everything a good press.

Next, we need to trim off all those untidy edges. I do this on my dining table, using my cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler to give a nice straight edge. If you don’t have those things, you could use a normal ruler, draw straight line, and cut with scissors.

Now we need to use that binding we made earlier to bind the edges. I have a more detailed explanation of how to bind quilt edges in my Quilted Garden Blanket tutorial here so feel free to use that too if you’d like to.

Fold under ½” of short edges and topstitch ¼’ from edge. Then carry on with next step.

Pin a binding strip right side together with your quilt, aligning raw edges evenly. Sew at a 5/8" seam allowance using the crease in your binding as a guide.

Trim the edges of the 5/8" seam allowance you've just sewn by half and wrap your binding over to the back of your play mat so that it covers the line of stitching you’ve just sewn. Pin in place.

Stitch in the ditch of your binding with the playmat right side up making sure that you’re catching in the edge of your binding on the bottom side of your quilt.

Repeat this process for each side of your quilt/play mat.

Once your binding is all attached you can neaten any raw edges of the binding with a few hand stitches and give everything a good press.

And you’re all done and ready to play!!!

#2) Child’s Handy Tote Bag

I’m going to show you how to make a super easy, beginner-friendly tote/book bag! It’s perfect for carrying library books, school supplies or anything else you’d like.

Technique: Machine sewing

Skill Level: Beginner

Finished Size: 10 ½ x 14 ½“ (26.67cm x 36.83cm)

You will need

Fabric for main – I’m using 1 fat quarter of ‘Border Stripe’ from the ‘Under Construction’ range by Studio E - SKU: 6065-17
Fabric for lining – I’m using 1 fat quarter of 'Hex Bolt' from the ‘Under Construction’ range by Studio E SKU - 6056-77
A ruler or tape measure
Rotary cutter or scissors
Thread

Let’s get started:

Draw your pattern

First, you’ll want to draw yourself a pattern, I used old newspaper to make mine. If you’re feeling confident, you can cut or draw straight onto the fabric if you prefer.

For the main body of the bag, I measured 11.5” x 15.5“, which is just big enough to get a couple of reasonably sized books in. You can make yours larger or smaller if you prefer.

You’ll also need to draw yourself a handle pattern, mine measures 3” x 22”. If you’d like your bag to be a shoulder tote, make your handles longer.

Cutting out your fabric

You’ll need to cut two each of your main bag pieces from your main fabric and two from your lining fabric.

You’ll need to cut two handles from your main fabric and two from your lining fabric.

Let’s get sewing:

Place one handle from the main fabric and one handle from the lining fabric together, right sides together. Sew down both long edges, using a 3/8” seam allowance.

Repeat for the second handle.

Trim your seam allowances, this will make the straps easier to turn through to the right side. When trimming your seam allowance – be careful to not accidentally snip your seam!

Turn your straps right side out, so that the right sides of the fabrics are on the outside. Press. Top stitch long edges, about 1/8” from edge to keep your straps nice and flat.

Next, you need to attach handles to the main bag fabric. Pin both ends of one handle, right sides together evenly from each edge of your main bag outer fabric. Mine are placed 2.5” from each side edge based on my bag measurements. Make sure that your handle is facing downwards.

Double stitch your handles in place using a 3/8 seam allowance. Double stitching will secure the handles helping them to better take the weight of whatever is in your bag.

Next, we need to sew our bag pieces together. Pin and sew your bag main pieces right sides together along the sides and bottom. Make sure the handles are safely tucked inside. Sew with a 3/8” seam allowance.

Since my fabric is striped, I’m doing my best to match the stripes as I go.

Trim your corners and seam allowances and turn your bag through, poke out corners with knitting needle or a pin and give it a good press.

Sew the sides and bottom of lining right sides together in the same way, but this time leave gap of approximately 4” at the bottom. This is how we’ll turn the bag through in a bit. Be sure to backstitch at each end of your gap to keep your stitches secure.

Trim your corners, side and bottom seams in the same way as you did for the main bag, leave the gap untrimmed but this time do not turn through.

Now for the fun part. Place your main bag inside your lining bag right sides together. Tuck your handles inside and match up the raw edges at the top of the bag.

Pin the raw edges at the top of your bag together and stitch at 3/8 seam allowance. Trim your seam.

Remember that 4” opening we left in the lining, this is where it comes in handy! Reach in through that hole and pull your main bag piece out through that hole. Keep pulling until everything is the right way out.

Close your opening. You can pin and top stitch the hole on your machine or if want to be super neat you can hand sew this closed with invisible stitches.

Tuck your lining back inside your main bag poking out the corners neatly. You might need to wriggle everything around a bit to get the lining to stay flat. Press

Topstitch around the top edge of the bag, 1/8” from the edge, to keep lining inside.

Give everything a final press and you’re all done!!

#3) A Hand-Sewn Pentagon Patchwork Ball

My last project is a lovely hand-sewing project, perfect if you don’t own your own sewing machine, and a great one to make with older children who would like to learn how to sew. This project is also a great introduction to English Paper Piecing patchwork and perfect to sit and do in front of the TV.

Technique: Patchwork English Paper Piecing

Skill Level: Adventurous beginner

Finished Size: 5 ½ x 5 ½“ (13.97cm x 13.97cm)

You will need:

Twelve x 2” paper pentagon templates. I drew my own, each of my pentagon sides measures 2” with the widest point being 3 2/8”. If you don’t want to draw your own, there are lots of templates available to print out online in different sizes. You can even buy the paper pieces already cut for you on Amazon if you want to make life really easy for yourself.
Scraps of fabric slightly larger than each pentagon. I used:

Construction tools – SKU 6059-76

Crane and Truck – SKU 6060-90

Dump Truck White – SKU 6061-1

Dump Truck Red - SKU -6061-88

Truck all over – SKU 6063-17

Hex Bolt SKU 6056-77

Yellow Diagonal Stripe SKU 6055-44

A needle and thread.
Polyester fibre fill stuffing or something to stuff your ball with that is child safe.

Let’s get started

If necessary, cut your fabric into smaller pieces just larger than your pentagon shape. Make sure to leave a good 5/8” around the edge of your shape, since you’ll be cutting again in a minute.

Once you have your scraps cut, place each pentagon on top of one scrap of your fabric. Roughly cut around your pentagon shape leaving approximately a 5/8” extra for seam allowance.

Once all of your rough pentagon shapes have been cut, you’ll then need to tack them directly onto your paper pentagon pieces. To do this, place the paper pentagon piece onto the wrong side of your piece of fabric, fold the edges of your fabric over your paper piece and tack right through the paper and fabric.

Note: A tacking stitch is simply a long hand stitch usually sewn with a contrast color thread. The stitches are left long and don’t have to be super neat because they’ll need to be removed later in the process along with your paper pieces.

Your ball will be sewn in two halves, a top and a bottom. To prepare these two halves, lay your pentagons out in a design that you prefer so that you have a middle pentagon and one other pentagon along each of the middle shapes edges.

You can go with any design you like, but it’s nice to not run two of the same fabrics together if you can help it.

Hand-sew one pentagon shape to each edge of your middle pentagons piece using a whip stitch or overcast stitch. Try to only catch the fabric in your stitches, do not sew through the paper here.

Note: To make a whip or overcast stitch, hold your two pentagons, one on top of the other, right sides together. Poke your needle through the top layer of your fabric. Bring it over both layers and up through the bottom layer of fabric. Your stitch should run over both layers of fabric joining them together.

Once you’ve sewn up all of your bottom edges, using your whip stitch, you’ll now need to sew up the sides in the same way to create the bowl shape of one half of your ball.

Repeat 4 and 5 for the other half of your ball.

Once you have your two ball halves, you’ll need to use your whip stitch again to hand-sew your top half to your bottom half. Do this by pairing up each side of the pentagon to its corresponding top or bottom and sew around to form the ball shape. It’s almost as though you’re sewing in a zig zag here.

Leave two pentagon sides open and unsewn when you reach the other end as you’ll need to turn through to the right side and stuff.

Once you’ve sewn all around and left your gap, secure the ends of your thread and remove all of your paper pentagon pieces and your contrast tacking stitches. This feels really satisfying!

Turn your ball right side out through the hole you left earlier and stuff firmly with polyester fibre fill.

Once your ball is nicely stuffed, we’ll need to close that hole. This feels slightly fiddly as you’ll be sewing from the right side this time. Use a couple of pins to help you close the gap, and hand-sew using your whip stitch again as neatly as you can as these stitches will be more visible from the outside.