Its finished

 I finished the playmat for P's birthday.  And I am so excited to have it done.  I used this tutorial from Rhythm of the Home.

The tutorial is really easy to follow, but there are a few things that were a bit more difficult than I expected.  I started with just three jerseys, but this definitely looks better with more colours in it, so I added a few more into it.  The more different tones of the colours for this the better I suspect.

When I stuck the interfacing to the back of the pieces of felt, there were some gaps, where the pieces of felt didn't abut quite right.  When I zigzagged it all together, I just smooched the pieces of felt together a little bit, and it all fitted together really nicely.  As you can see I didn't have any invisible thread so I just used some co-ordinating thread instead, and it was fine.

 I wanted to needle felt the front, but I couldn't find any needles anywhere, so I did a bit of embroidery with some scraps of wool instead.  I really like the way it came out, although it looks a bit more 'made' than the original tutorial.

It all went fine until I tried to put the paper backed fusible webbing onto it.  When I went to buy the wonder under (the stuff recommended in the tutorial), the shop only had a different kind 'steam a seam'.  It was a disaster trying to get it to attach to the felt, and it kept tearing (I'm pretty sure I put it on the wrong way).  And then the backing wasn't exactly the right size - why is it always at the end that these things happen?

But it hasn't really affected the finished front, so I do think that P will really enjoy using it.  I'm definitely keen to make another one so it was definitely a worthwhile project.

Joining up with Stash busting, and Creative Friday today.