tutorial: wet felted ocean playmat

sienna loves wet felting playmats for her wee dolls, gnomes, fairies, and animals. in the past she has done many a lake, pond, and river playmat. when she received wee mermaids for solstice, she knew right away that a new playmat was in order....an ocean and beach scene! here's how we did it:

you will need:

wool roving in the colors of your choice
dish soap
bubble wrap or bamboo blinds
a pitcher or large cup

begin by spreading the fibers of your roving. this is an important step in the felting process! you don't want any clumps. pull it thin.

as you lay your fibers out on the bubble wrap, be sure to criss cross the layers. some strands go vertically, the next horizontally. this will aide in the felting process, too. also, if you are abutting two colors like we did here, be sure to overlap them a bit so that they can felt to one another more easily.

you need to add many more layers than you would think or you will end up with holes. you will have a big puffy cloud when you are ready to begin.

here is what ours looked like before we began the felting.jasper wanted to do one, too. here's his creative layout.next, fill your pitcher with a dash of dish soap (i don't believe that brand matters, but some folks swear by dawn for felting) and hot water. if you are doing this with children, be mindful of their threshold when preparing the water. carefully pour the water over the fibers wetting the entire surface.fold the bubble wrap carefully over the top, sandwiching the playmat in between.

at first, you will want to gently massage the wool through the bubble wrap. the idea here is to get the fibers to stick together before you start the vigorous felting.

you can lift up the plastic and check your progress. if you see that you have obvious holes or thin spots, now is a good time to add some more roving. when you see that the fibers are starting to stick together in one piece a bit, you can begin more vigorous action. sienna firmly agitated the wool through the plastic.rolling it up and smooshing it (technical term) under your weight is very helpful. encourage your child to put their body weight into it.jasper had his own techniques. ;) he even used a mallet! i wouldn't suggest it, though it did work out for him.

continue this action until firmly felted. it could take 15 minutes or so. add more soap and hot water as needed. you can even *flush* it with cold water in between. the change from hot to cold shocks the fibers and aids the felting process.when they were finished, i rinsed the mats well and put them in the dryer with some tennis balls. (it's true!) this firms them up a bit more and made the finished product a bit thicker. we only left them in for a few minutes and let them finish drying on their own in the sun.here's her finished mat!

here's jasper's. he says it is part of a dog. ??sienna wanted *four blue sea stars washing up on the shore*. so, i needle felted those on for her.

mermaids made by dannielle of princess nimble thimble. they are so well made and detailed!

the finished mat in action.i love that i can tuck the mermaids and some shells inside and roll it up. we are going on a long road trip next week and this will come in handy!

i had to add these last two pics as i found this after i had already started writing this post. she said the mermaid was admiring the sea star. so sweet!as soon as she received the mermaid couple, she went and found this wee wool baby from a story set of mine. here she has tucked the baby into a shell cradle. i never tire of the imagination and creativity that open ended toys provide!

a great way to do this with younger children is inside a ziploc baggie as described here. this is how we started a couple of years ago.

we hope you enjoy making your own playmats! we'd love to see them if you do!