05 October 2009

Baby playmat

This weekend my project was a baby fleur playmat. I honestly don't know much about these other than thinking I could probably make one. With the help of this pattern, I set to work.

I made a few adjustments - I left off the face design, used a super super soft yellow center (instead of felt), and I added crinkle sounds to some of the petals. I added the crinkle by cutting up an old/clean potato chip bag in the shape of the petals and sewing it between the petal layers (leaving out the batting). It makes a great crackle/crunch sound - and it should wash up without a problem. I hear that babies love crinkle sounds?!

I specifically love the ribbon loops that allow for toys to be attached around the border (look for the green ribbons).

Anyway, here is the finished playmat with its new buddy, the nursery pillow:

DSC_5303

I'm making a major attempt to keep things "gender neutral" but it's so hard! Everything seems to have a bit too much "baby boy" or "baby girl" in it. Any tips besides sticking with green and yellow?

The pattern is the creation of "onegirl designwrks" check out her blog.

7 comments:

foodmathquilts said...

Its beautiful!
I think you managed gender neutral, but some would say that being a flower makes it more girl ... I would ignore them.
Thanks for the link, I'm bookmarking the pattern now.
Sarah

ReNay said...

Cute, cute!

Danetta said...

That is a really cute idea! I like seeing bright colors for gender neutral baby things.

vildkatten said...

Things in black and white attracts the baby because of the contrast, red is a strong colour that they use to see well and like so those would be good baby choises. Other contrasting colours and strong colours are also baby friendly and because of that gender neutral I think, maybe find some inspiration in the rainbow?

If you want calmer colours I think that white with all the pastels works if used all together since then it's just pastels, not one colour singled out.

If you want to divide it up boy/girl I actually think that it's just pink (especially the lighter ones) and blue (especially the darker ones) that marks the sex, unless it's only that one colour of everything concerning the baby. The rest colours works as well for both. Maybe brown and then when you know the sex you can add either baby blue or baby pink to it?

I have a baby boy and most blue I just can't stand so he has extremely little blue, he loves lime green, red and pink. Maybe you can make the foundation of some things and then wait to find out your baby's personal taste before adding that, knowing that your baby likes it and not caring about what gender it "should" represent?

Long comment, hope it gave you something.

Jamie said...

What a cute idea-i have never seen that before. It looks very well-executed.

In answer to your question: i love the ergo baby! It is way, way more versatile than the bjorn. You can wear the baby in it like a sling and also as a backpack. I would definitely recommend it. Good luck with the arrival of your baby!

Cheryl Arkison said...

What about adding grey in with yellow, green, or orange? Or aqua, red, yellow, and orange? Green and brown (that's what we went with, we had a girl and it works perfectly with some orange, pink, and turqoise accents.

Lynette said...

I think that neutral colored toile deisgns (creams, browns, grays...etc) would work well for gender-neutral. :)