Lunar Felt Playscape with Peg Doll Astronauts

After making the felt meadow and brook playscape, I decided to make a lunar playscape with a couple of peg doll astronauts. Last week I sewed features on top of the base. This week I layered 3 sheets of wool felt and did cut-outs to the 2nd light grey layer and the 3rd light brown layer. Then I sewed the cut out felt scrapes to the top layer to create rocks and hills in the landscape.

This is a very grey landscape! I sewed on a few “mineral rock” buttons and a little bit of space “junk” (the red star) that must have fallen off the rocket!

It was so much fun making the peg dolls. I used the standard size pegs. I picked Apollo era type suits and made felt life packs. The life pack is held on the doll by a 1/4 inch white elastic around the neck.

Astronaut without the life pack on the left and the one on the right wearing it.

After I had everything made, I found the tiny American flag buttons at a craft store. So I added those to the life packs.

Life Packs with the flag buttons

I have a wood rocket ship I found on Etsy.com (which hasn’t arrived yet) to add to the set. The seven year old who will be the recipient lives near the ocean so I am going to suggest that he add some beach rocks for added interest.

Next week….maybe I’ll have be a quilt top to share. There is one nearly complete.

Making a Felt Playscape

A photo of a felt playscape of a beach popped up on my Instagram feed this weekend. Wow. What a fun idea. It turns out there are lots of playscapes available on Etsy.com. (I actually purchased one that was amazing). But it’s really fun to make one with exactly the features you want.

I have a stash of wool felt but the greens and blues all had “nibbles” taken out of them from making peg doll outfits. Standard 8 x 12 inch felt rectangles would be ideal but I could only cobble together enough 8 x 9 inch pieces, so that’s how big mine I made it.

You need two pieces the same size for the base. I sewed the felt landscape components on with 3 strands of embroidery thread, using a running stitch and French knots. That left a lot of knots and loose threads on the back. So the 2nd piece of felt covers all that up and makes the playscape sturdier.

Back of the playscape base showing the stitching

Here are my landscape components:

• a hill, made by using 3 different size circles. The bottom two circles can be placed one on top of the other and sewn to the base together. Then the third circle is sewn on top of them.

• a brook, with 3 stepping stones.

• flowers made with scraps. Cute, but I think not sturdy enough to hold up to play. Next time I’ll just cut wavy circles and fasten them with French knots.

• a trout, hiding near the stones in the brook

• a blackberry bush

• a fox that’s a button. The button has a loop on the back, so I cut a tiny slit with a craft knife and pushed the loop through and fastened it on the wrong side of the base. Safety note: do not use buttons if the playscape is for a child under 3 years old.

The dolls on the mat are 2 angel pegs and one boy peg that I made.

This is a great project for a child who has some basic hand sewing skills. And it also has STEAM potential for homeschoolers. Using my design a child can explore these topics:

• Landscape design

• Topographical maps

• Foraging for berries (there are wild blackberries and wild blueberries near my house)

• Fluid dynamics—I attempted to make eddies around the rocks in the stream and the fish is in a quiet space behind one of he rocks

• Art—use of color, sewing as decoration

Adding other components makes the playscape even more exciting.

Playscape with 2 wooden arches from a Grimm Blue Grotto puzzle

When designing felt playscapes, the sky’s really the limit. In fact, I’m planning to design a moonscape for my next one!