DIY Quilted Play Mat Part I: Wool Appliqué

A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

If you have a toddler in your life, chances are you have toy cars in your life as well—probably more than you know what to do with! Little kids are amazing at transforming mundane surfaces into roads, construction sites and racetracks. With this DIY quilted play mat tutorial you can add a soft homemade touch to your toddler's imagination!

My daughter Fiona is a year and a half old, and she already has an extensive collection of miniature cars, trucks, and busses. I love to sit back and watch her push them around while saying, "Vroom!" (One of her first words!)

Seeing her love of all things motorized inspired me to make this quilted play mat complete with retro houses and two-lane streets for her toy cars. I'm excited to share a tutorial with you that's full of color and texture so your little one can feel, crawl and race down the freeway! Vroom! Honk! CRASH! Full speed ahead!

A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

DIY Quilted Play Mat Part 1 of 2: Wool Appliqué

In this three-part tutorial, you'll learn everything you need to know to make a DIY quilted play mat.

Ready to make your own DIY quilted play mat? Put the pedal to the metal (of your sewing machine) and let's get started! 

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A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

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Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

DIY Quilted Play Mat Supplies

A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing
A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

Step 1: Make the Fishing Net Quilt

To start making your DIY quilted play mat, buy the Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern and make your base quilt following the instructions in the pattern. The throw size is a great size for a toddler play mat and the intersecting lines look just like streets⁠—perfect for playing with cars!

Fishing Net is one of the fastest Suzy Quilts patterns. You can make the whole top in a weekend!

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

TIP: Here's how to get a neighborhood look in your play mat. For my Fishing Net base quilt, I chose a green print for Color 1, a light gray for Color 2, and a dark gray for Color 3. This creates a grass and street feel!

The fabrics I used in my Fishing Net quilt are:

A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

My Fishing Net quilt was quilted by Kept in Stitches. I chose to have my play mat quilted before doing the wool appliqué, but you could attach the appliqué to the top first. 

Sewing the appliqué onto the top or completed quilt is up to you, just make sure you have a plan in place. My tutorials will focus on hand sewing the wool appliqué. But you can machine stitch it in place if you'd like to speed up the process. 

I used wool batting for my Fishing Net quilt because I like the puffy look it gives to the grass sections of the DIY quilted play mat. However, if you'd like a flatter look for your play mat, try using bamboo or cotton!

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Step 2: Prepare Your Wool Felt

Just like wool fabric or batting, wool felt will shrink when wet. So if you'd like to be able to wash your play mat in the washing machine, start by pre-washing your wool felt. Benzie Design has a great blog post about pre-washing their felt! The post focuses on Benzie's wool blend felt, but it applies to their 100% wool felt as well.

If you don't want to pre-wash your wool felt, plan to only spot clean your play mat to avoid shrinking.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Note about materials: I recommend using 100% wool for your appliqué for several reasons. For example, it won't hold creases easily. This means you can fold your play mat when it's not in use and won't have to worry about severe creasing (this is also one of the reasons I chose wool batting for my play mat.) Pure wool felt also pairs nicely with 100% cotton, linen, or other natural materials you may include in your quilts. And it's incredibly soft!

Most importantly, 100% wool is a high-quality material that will outlast felt purchased from big box stores and hold up to play better. Because of this, I recommend purchasing a 6x9" collection of Bellwether pure wool felt from Benzie Design, which gives you lots of colors to choose from. But you can also pick and choose your colors individually.

Make sure you use the code SUZYQUILTS2021 at checkout for 10% off your Benzie Design order through the end of 2021!

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Step 3: Create Your Color Combinations

Once you have your felt, it's time to have fun and make appliqué color combinations! You can purchase a Bellwether felt swatch chart from Benzie Design (I turned mine into magnets like you see above), or play with your felt when it is shipped to you.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Each appliqué house is designed to use three colors (plus white for the windows). You can see some of the color combinations I used for houses on my quilt in the picture above.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

The cars use two colors (plus black for the wheels). Here are some colors I used for appliqué cars.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

And here's what I used for the trees and tree trunks! The appliqué template PDF also includes a school and school bus so you can choose even more colors for your DIY quilted play mat!

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Step 4: Make Plastic Templates

This step is optional, but I find making plastic templates to be very helpful when preparing felt appliqué shapes. If you'd like to skip this step and use the paper from the template PDF instead, scroll ahead to step 5. Otherwise, keep reading!

Plastic templates are a helpful tool because they provide a harder surface for your chalk marker or pencil to bump up against when tracing the shapes. It's a lot like making very thin rulers! 

You'll need a pack of template plastic to make these. First, use a permanent marker and a quilting ruler to trace the paper templates onto the plastic. Next, cut them out with regular scissors (don't let your shears near this!). I number each part of appliqué with a code so I can keep them straight (House #1 is shown above), and keep each house and car in individual plastic baggies to keep them organized.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Step 5: Cut Out Felt Shapes

First, decide which colors you'll use for which parts of your appliqué shape. For the house above, I chose to use the darkest blue for the base of the house, a medium blue for the roof accent and door, and a light blue for the house's trim.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Second, using a chalk marker or other removable marking tool, trace the template onto a piece of wool felt. 

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Third, trace all of the templates onto pieces of wool felt.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

And finally, cut out the shapes using felt scissors.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Step 6: Stitch Felt Shapes Together

Now it's time to make your felt shapes! In the image above, you can see how your appliqué shapes will start to come to life once you've cut them from the templates.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

To start, use a temporary glue pen to hold individual pieces of felt down, like basting in a quilt. Be sure to only glue one or two pieces down at a time to make sure they stay in place as you sew them.

TIP: If you use a glue pen like I did, the glue will get a little fuzzy from picking up felt fibers. So I keep a paper towel near me and occasionally wipe the top of the glue pen off to remove the fibers.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Separate your embroidery floss until you have only one strand. I used a set of DMC floss that coordinates with the Bellwether line of pure wool felt, which meant that the embroidery floss had six strands. For this step, we are using one strand to sew with to reduce thread bulk when attaching the appliqué in the quilt, which I'll cover in Part II of this tutorial.

Using a whip stitch, sew around each entire template shape so it is secured to the base (the biggest template shape). This step is very similar to hand sewing binding onto a quilt, and you can see a video demonstration of a whip stitch here.

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

Whip stitch all of your felt pieces together, and you're all done with this step! For my DIY quilted play mat, I made:

  • 7 houses
  • 7 cars
  • 1 school
  • 1 school bus
  • 12 trees

In total, I used 40 colors out of the Benzie Design Bellwether collection to make the play mat as vibrant and fun as I could. Have fun playing with color combinations and making your appliqué neighborhood!

Transform a Suzy Quilts Fishing Net pattern into a fun play mat for your favorite toddler in this multi-part tutorial! suzyquilts.com #quilting #sewingdiy

In Part II, coming on November 11, I'll show you how to sew your wool appliqué to your Fishing Net quilt using a blanket stitch. 

Have you made a wool appliqué quilt before? Let me know your questions in the comments, and tell me who you'd like to make a DIY quilted play mat for!

A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing
A simple DIY quilted play mat tutorial! Transform a quilt pattern into a toddler play mat for cars. suzyquilts.com #quilt #kidsewing

40 thoughts on “DIY Quilted Play Mat Part I: Wool Appliqué

      • Laura Hopper says:

        Hi Jerry! Click on the link that says “Fishing Net Play Mat templates (click to download PDF)” under the heading “DIY Quilted Play Mat Supplies.” The templates should download automatically!

  1. Erica says:

    This is amazing! You need to do a joint feature with CandyLab, those cars/trucks are adorable. Great tutorial, and great idea!

  2. Kat says:

    Oooh! A new grandson has landed in the family and I am definitely going to make this! I am looking forward to the rest of the tutorials. Thank you!

  3. Lisa Rechkemmer says:

    Just TOO adorable! Just how washable is the wool? My grandson will probably get it dirty…not that this would get washed all that much but it would at some point…

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Good question, Lisa! Check out “Step 2: Prepare Your Wool Felt” for more information, but as long as you pre-wash the wool felt, you’ll be able to wash the finished quilt in the machine on the delicate cycle or hand wash it. If you skip that step, plan to spot clean the quilt. There’s a link to more information on washing Benzie wool felt under Step 2 as well that should help! Enjoy making one for your grandson!

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Thank you! This is the perfect time to start, and to be able to take your time in making it! By the time you’re done, I bet he’ll be itching to play with toy cars 🚗

  4. Robyn says:

    Fabulous idea and execution Laura! I’d love to see some traffic lights or road signs at the intersections. The spiral quilting in those squares might create chaos for the cars otherwise, haha! 🤪

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Thanks! I used one 6×9″ Bellwether collection of 100% wool felt to make this, and have plenty of leftover scraps for future projects!

      • Mereta Brown says:

        I’ve made the smaller size, thinking that was the size for a baby play mat. I now realise that you made the larger size as the play mat! Oops!
        Are the appliqué pieces too large for my baby size? I’m asking because the quilt is away being quilted and I want to get on with the cars, houses etc
        Thank you

        • Laura Hopper says:

          I haven’t made Fishing Net in the baby size, but I’m guessing it’ll be ok! Everything might just be closer together, or you may want to use fewer applique pieces. But the baby who uses this will love it and never know 🙂

  5. Catherine Stuart says:

    This project is so fabulous! I am making this for my granddaughter for her birthday in November. I am an advanced beginner quilter but have never worked with appliqué before. I’ve prepared all the felt pieces. I’m wondering if you have any tips on how to whip stitch adjacent felt pieces to the foundation (for example, the house top and the house roof together). Sewing the first piece should not be a problem. Getting the second piece stitched looks tricky when the two pieces are supposed to be flush. Thank you!

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Oh that’s such a sweet birthday gift! My daughter just loves her quilted mat! Using the glue pen really helps to keep the pieces in place as you’re sewing, and what’s great is that if you’re sewing by hand, you can nudge any piece while you’re sewing to keep it in place. It looks challenging, but once you do one, you’ll get the hang of it!

  6. Marcia Michel says:

    Hi Suzy!
    I absolutely love the DIY Quilted Play Mat and am planning on making one for my grandson. Where will I find Part 2, attaching my wool appliqué to my finished mat?
    Many thanks,
    Marcia Michel

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Aw, we’re so glad to hear that you’re making a play mat for your grandson! What a fantastic gift! A couple of tips for finding blog posts on our website are to use the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of every page or at the top of the menu on a mobile device (that’s our search bar and you can enter any search terms you’d like!), or to click on the author name to see the rest of that author’s posts. Here’s the direct link so you can read about finishing the play mat! https://suzyquilts.com/diy-quilted-play-mat-part-ii-finishing-the-mat/

  7. Emily says:

    Hi, I’m just about to prep my wool felt and I’m wondering if you put it in the dryer at all, even on low? It’d be nice to be able to put the finished quilt in the dryer if possible, but I don’t see mention of dryer use on the Benzie site. Thanks!

    • Laura Hopper says:

      If you’re pre-shrinking your wool, lay it flat to dry or you can use a hair drier to dry it faster (these are gentler methods to use before cutting and sewing the felt). Once it’s sewn onto your quilt, you can put the whole thing in the drier as long as you’ve pre-washed everything 🙂

  8. Leanne S says:

    Thanks as always Laura, I remember when you posted it I thought I need a little one in my life for this!
    I’m happy to report that my daughter and her husband are adopting, so this is happening!
    Love it so much !
    Where did you get the adorable “chunky” vehicles?

  9. Peg W. says:

    I understand your preference for wool felt but it is a common allergen that grows more intense with repeated exposure. I have a severe allergy to it and would not risk triggering my grandchild’s allergy to wool by using wool felt OR wool batting. I am a little envious of those for whom allergies are not a problem. Just a thought…

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Sorry to hear about your allergy! You can do the same applique using fabric by doing a raw edge technique or adding seam allowance to the templates to do needle turn applique 🙂

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