Baby Playmat

This is going to be an unusual post. I am just going to tell you not to do this project, and I will tell you what was so terrible about it, so that you don't make the same mistakes I did. Hopefully it will give you ideas to do something like this but a billion times easier!

I found a playmat at a yardsale and got it for fifty cents. I didn't realize until I got it home that the bottom was torn up pretty badly and was not worth fixing. Being the crafty gal I am, I decided to make a new bottom for it.

I knew I wanted the bottom nice and cushy like a blanket, but I noticed that even crib sized batting was expensive so I decided a puff pillow would be neat and I had a pillow of fluff that could fill it for a tiny bit of the price.

This was at the time my sewing machine was broken, so most of the squares were hand sewn together and then whip stitched closed. I did get to use the machine for some of the squares, but when the squares are finished they all have to be whip stitched together. And that was the nightmare. I started this when I was pregnant, and did alot of the work when I was on bedrest, but it still wasn't finished until the baby was almost too big for it! It was very time consuming and very frustrating. Not to mention that I dreaded doing it, so a week at a time it would just sit until I would pick it up again the next week.

I also recovered the poles that went over the top. Those were fun and easy to sew, I just copied the originals. By this time my sewing machine was working, I wouldn't do these by hand, they get pulled on and eaten too much!

If I were to do it again I would do a few things differently. 1. Buy one already made, new at a store. 2. Find a Joann's coupon and just buy the batting. 3. Make it with an existing quilt. 4. Sew thick straps to go corner to corner and put blankets I already had over the straps.

Number four is my favorite idea, I wish I had done that! Well now you see a cute project that took FOR-EV-ER and know what not to do. Thanks for reading!