Sewing a developmental mat with your own hands can be a very pleasant and exciting activity for a mother during pregnancy or in the first months after the birth of the baby.

Of course, you can simply buy a rug, but by making it yourself, you not only save money, but also invest your soul in the development of your baby.

It can be very simple, but contain different elements for understanding the world around you, or you will put a lot of effort and imagination into creating it - it all depends on your desire.

In this article, we have collected the basic principles for creating elements of a developmental mat and ideas for using improvised means for the development of a child.

As a rule, such a mat is used for babies from 1-2 months. The child is placed there on his back (if the mat has curves) or on his tummy. The main requirement for a rug is that it should be warm and cozy and have many different textured elements that the baby can touch, kick, catch, press, and put in his mouth.

The woven material and elements should be varied to the touch - smooth, rough, fur, fleecy, cold, with pimples, etc.

General idea and materials

First, come up with a general idea – color scheme, mood. Will the rug depict a whole story, or represent various phenomena (elements, seasons), or will it simply be sewn from squares or triangles of different fabrics? Draw a sketch.

The colors should not be very flashy, but also not too pale. Small child It only recognizes contrasting colors well, so sewing the entire rug in different shades of pink is a bad idea. And fabrics and various elements should not pose a danger to the baby.

Think about what you have- scraps of fabric, buttons, ribbons, fringe, braid, zippers, Velcro, appliques, images of animals on fabric, something instead of an arc. Everything can become elements of a developmental rug, the main thing is to sew it securely.

And do not forget that the rug will need to be washed, so the fabrics and all elements must withstand washing, or be attached in such a way that they can be removed before washing.

To sew a developmental mat with your own hands, we suggest using an old blanket or padding polyester as a base to make the baby warm and soft. The blanket can be square 1x1 m or 1.5x1.5 m, or any other shape and size.

You will cover the blanket with the main material with already sewn elements in the form of some kind of pattern, or sew the outer surface of the rug using the patchwork technique from pieces of fabric of various textures and colors.

Arcs for a developmental mat can be made from a hoop, which is cut to length depending on the size of the mat. How to attach them is clearly shown in the video at the end of the article. The arcs are lined with fabric, then you can hang toys on them - store-bought or homemade (for example,).

There is another option than replacing the arcs for the rug:

Design themes and elements of the educational rug

The design of the rug can be dedicated to the theme of animals, flowers, fruits, fairy tales. It could be some kind of story or a town with houses, cars, a river and trees. Try dividing the playing surface of the rug into sectors dedicated to the seasons, time of day or elements - water, earth, air, etc.

If you just sew a rug from different fabrics, then take a variety of colors and textures, polka dot and striped prints. Fabrics with patterns are also available, you can choose a suitable theme and sew everything from one fabric, the main thing is that it washes well.

Sew rustling polyethylene or candy wrappers into some game elements. Use satin, tulle, artificial fur for the baby's sensory development.

Let some elements be convex and soft; fill them with padding polyester or holofiber. Sew firmly different buttons, you can make a pattern out of them, use buttons of various shapes.

Rain or rays of the sun can be depicted using fringe, or sew on multi-colored ribbons in the shape of a rainbow. Somewhere you can sew in lacing and a zipper so that the child can practice his fine motor skills and learn how to use them when he grows up.

Let some elements of the rug be attached with Velcro - for example, this is how doors in a house can open and close. Hide some surprises in your pockets; your baby will be interested in how they are hidden and found again. Sew some toys with elastic bands into the pocket.

Come up with sound effects. In addition to the rustling candy wrappers sewn into the elements of the rug, you can hang a bell or musical toys on the arcs. Try taking out a music block from old toys and sewing it into a rug.

And now a video that will clearly show how, from a technical point of view, to make a developmental mat with arcs with your own hands, how to make and attach toys:

Development of the baby in early age very important. You don't need to master this to do this. complex techniques and spend a lot of time studying: this will only tire the baby. It is much easier to purchase a mat for newborns. IN game form The child will develop vision, motor skills, sensory skills, and coordination of movements. And if you don’t have the funds to purchase this useful gadget in the store, you can make it yourself.

The benefits of a developmental mat

Modern educational rugs for babies became known not so long ago. This is a full-fledged gaming complex that develops a child’s intelligence. If earlier mothers used a blanket as a regular bedding to make it warmer for the baby to play and crawl on the floor, today a simple bedding is no longer relevant.

It is better to choose a rug with arcs on which various toys are hung; this additionally develops coordination and stimulates the baby to focus his vision.

Musical elements and various tweeters are very good; they develop hearing. And to press a button, you need to build a logical chain in your head: button-press-music. Such actions will develop the baby's thinking.

• For sensory development, children's rugs should be equipped with various rustling elements, as well as fragments of fabrics with different textures.
• Often in such gadgets you can see a special “safe” mirror. This element is very useful. With its help, the child gets to know himself and examines his face. This mirror will not break, even if the baby drops it or starts gnawing on it.
• Well, another undeniable advantage of such a toy is that it can keep the child occupied for quite a long time, which gives the mother the opportunity to do something else.

All the necessary elements are already provided in purchased models. But such rugs are not cheap. For the simplest option with a minimum of development elements, you will have to pay at least 2000-3000 rubles. At the same time, it is not a fact that the baby will be interested in such a purchase for a long time with a small number of interesting “things”.

It will be much more interesting to experiment and make a similar toy for a newborn yourself. If there are older children in the family, you can involve them in creating such a gaming center too. This way, the younger family member will get an educational toy, and older children will have an interesting and creative time.

How to sew a developmental mat with your own hands

In fact, everything is not as difficult as it seems. To give such a gift to a baby, you only need a little patience, imagination and available materials.

Where to begin

First you need to soberly assess your sewing capabilities and perseverance. If this is difficult, then there is no need to take on complex models. A simple option made from an old blanket, fabric appliqués and buttons is a good place to start. Although this gadget looks simple, it will be very interesting for the little ones.

Appliques of different shapes and colors made of thick fabric (you can use felt) are sewn onto a base made from an old blanket. It’s good to decorate everything with buttons, and make several elements detachable - this will develop motor skills. The more decor and color, the better!

To make such a rug for a baby, you will need a minimum of time and materials.

If you want to do something more complicated, then you need more thorough preparation. You need to stock up on materials in advance, find suitable ideas on the Internet or come up with them yourself. It’s better to draw the future rug on paper in advance to have a clear idea of ​​what you should get. This step will help you select fabrics and accessories.

Selection of materials

The choice of source materials depends on the idea. But there is a general set that will definitely come in handy:

• Threads different color for sewing and embroidery.
• Needle.
• Scissors.
• Sewing machine. Of course, you can limit yourself to using your hands, but with sewing equipment the rug will turn out neater and the work will go faster.
• Velcro tape.
• Short zippers and bright colors.
• Regular underwear elastic.
• Different kinds braids.
• Buttons different forms, colors and sizes.
• Scraps of fabric of different textures and patterns.
• Candy wrappers for “rustling” elements.
• Squeakers from old toys to make a musical rug. You can use musical elements with buttons on batteries from books or toys.
• Plastic rings from old pacifiers and nipple holders.
• An old blanket for the base. Instead, padding polyester or any other insulation material that will not clump and dries quickly is suitable.
• Bright fabric for covering the rug. It is necessary to use hypoallergenic materials (cotton, fleece, flannel, etc.).

This kit is enough to make an amazing educational toy. Based on your intention, you can add to the list.

The main stages of making a developmental mat

1. It is necessary to think over the design and make patterns

This pattern is suitable for the base of the rug. It already provides for division into sectors. Each sector will carry its own meaning. When cutting, leave seam allowances

Patterns for decorative elements It is also better to do it in advance on paper in full size. You can take templates from the Internet or draw them yourself.
2. Then you need to cut the fabric for the base and sew it. An old blanket or padding polyester is placed inside to make the base warm and the child can play on the floor.
3. When the base is ready, you can begin the main work - decor. Game elements can be very different.

A house with an opening door. A bright applique is hidden behind the door.

Ladybug with a zipper that trains motor skills

Volumetric sun, which can be supplemented with a “squeaker”

Tent made of smooth textured material (raincoat fabric can be used) with Velcro and zipper

A berry on a string that you can pull back and forth

Velcro bridge over the river

A cloud with a pocket from which you can pull out the “rain” from the braid

Volumetric clouds with padding polyester inside and tulle folds on the outside. They can be sewn to the base, or they can be made with Velcro

A flower made of textured fabric with a voluminous center where you can put a rustling element, a button with music or a tweeter

There can be a lot of ideas for game elements. To begin with, all the decor is sewn separately. Then it is carefully sewn to the base. Here are just a few options for ready-made homemade rugs:

Idea with sectors designed according to the seasons

And this is how you can decorate the edges. With the help of braid they can be turned into sides. You can use buttons instead of ribbons

Bright rug “Parsley”

4. If you want to complicate the task and make a rug with arcs, you can make them using flexible plastic pipes of small diameter or a cheap plastic hoop.

Plastic pipes suitable for arcs. If you have a plastic hoop, cut it in half

The arcs need to be wrapped with padding polyester. Foil insulation is also suitable. The entire structure is well wrapped with threads for fixation. Manipulation is carried out with both arcs

The top of the arcs is sheathed with material suitable for the base of the rug

To secure the toys, you need to sew these loops of braid into the arch covers

Another option for attaching toys is Velcro cuffs. This design can easily move along an arc

To secure the arcs to the base, you can use different ways. It is better to choose those with removable arches. This will make the rug easier to fold and store.

The first method is plastic carbines
You will need four carabiners; you can take those left over from old high chairs, strollers, sleds, etc. It will also not be difficult to buy them at a sewing accessories store.

One part of the carabiner is attached to the inside of the mat at all four corners

The second part is fixed at the ends of the arcs. For fastening, a cover of the arches is used, which needs to be made a little longer for this.

To secure the arches, you just need to fasten all four fasteners, and secure the crosspiece on top with ribbon or braid, tying it crosswise. The second part of the Velcro is sewn to the ends of the arches

The arcs are inserted into the holes crosswise and secured from the inside with Velcro. You need to tie a braid on top for additional fixation. Instead of tape, you can use the same Velcro tape, which is sewn on the bottom of the upper arc and on top of the bottom

You can choose any method of attaching the arches. Some people use buttons or simply sew arcs to the base.

5. All that remains is to hang the toys from the arcs. You can purchase them in advance at the store or sew them yourself. Hanging toys also need to be equipped with interesting details, for example, inserting a bell from a rattle inside.

This bunny can be an excellent hanging toy. No patterns are required for sewing. A couple of pieces for the head and dress, ribbon for the ears, and cord for the arms and legs are enough.

Using these instructions, you can sew an excellent developmental mat for a newborn, which will be even better than a store-bought one.

Buy play mat– it’s not a difficult matter. But not all models sold in stores meet the necessary safety conditions. Why risk wasting your money? It is much better to make this useful gadget with your own hands. And you can be absolutely sure that all the materials are of high quality, and the item is made well and with love.

In addition, the item will be original and presented in a single copy - an excellent option for a gift. As the baby grows, you can watch him and add play elements to the item in accordance with the baby’s interests. Better yet, make several rugs with elements of varying complexity. This way the baby will definitely not get bored, and mommy will have some free time for herself or for household chores.

Many mothers (and you, I think, too) are concerned about the question: how to fully develop a child? After all, about the importance of development fine motor skills Everyone is saying this, you can read about this in any book and on any forum about children. And this is not surprising, because it has been established that the development of fine motor skills directly affects the overall development of the child’s brain.

In this article I want to talk about a wonderful toy that will provide invaluable assistance in developing the motor skills of children's fingers - this is a developmental mat. There is a whole expanse on the baby rug: you can touch, wrinkle, pull, unfasten, twist. Fingers are constantly at work, constantly gaining new tactile experiences. There are zippers and Velcro and everything that is so interesting for kids.

I propose to make a developmental mat with your own hands and below I will give several reasons why this is worth doing. Well, if you have already decided to sew this educational toy and are now looking for interesting ideas to make it, then this article is definitely for you. Here you will find various design ideas, and also find out what developmental elements can be used to make it interesting for your child to learn new motor skills. I will tell you about all the elements using the example of an educational rug that I sewed for my daughter.

What are the advantages of a homemade educational mat?

• In this case, it will meet all your wishes and will take into account all the interests and needs of your child.
• you save cash. You will most likely sew most of the parts for the rug from scraps of fabric you have, old buttons and other accessories. But, of course, you will have to buy something in addition, mainly appliqués for decoration and missing small details. In any case, such a children's educational mat will cost you less than one purchased in a store.
• The process of making a rug will probably seem very exciting to you; it will use all your imagination.

What will you need?

First you need to choose the fabric for the base. It should be thick fabric, preferably plain. Fleece, thin drape, quilted lining material with synthetic padding, and even a children's flannel blanket are good options. Try to choose for the base natural fabric, because the child will be on the mat for a long time. The size of the product will depend on the ideas that you plan to implement on it. For my daughter, I sewed a rug measuring 1x1 meter.

For the wrong side, for reasons of economy, you can take a simpler fabric, it could even be chintz.

It will be great if you use filler (sintepon), it will give the rug some rigidity, and when the child pulls the lace that interests him, the rug will keep its shape and will not bunch up into an “accordion.”

The following elements can be sewn onto an educational mat for children:

• buttons of different colors and sizes;
• lightning;
• Velcro;
• hooks;
• caps from plastic bottles(together with necks);
• belt with buckle;
• pockets with and without fasteners (buttons or Velcro);
• ribbons, laces, ribbons, large buttons can be attached to them;
• pads with different fillings (cereals, beans, rustling plastic bag, candy wrappers);
• rattling and musical elements from old toys.

Ideas for decorating a rug

It will be interesting for your baby to play with the rug, even if you just sew all these accessories in a chaotic order. But if you still decorate it in an interesting way, stitch on a lot of appliques, add surprises waiting for the baby under the locks and in numerous pockets, the child will simply not be able to tear him away.

It would be good if the appliqués were not just chaotically sewn onto the fabric, but were somehow connected to each other, united by a single design. Here are some design ideas:

Design idea No. 1. The most commonplace plot (which is represented on my rug) is a small landscape with the image of the sun and clouds in the upper part, and in the lower part - houses, trees, roads, cars, etc.

Design idea No. 2. You can make a rug in the form of a roadway, where there will be houses, cars, traffic lights, gas stations, garages; such a rug will also be interesting to drive cars on.

Design idea No. 3. You can make a rug on the theme “Seasons”; for this, the base fabric will need to be roughly divided into 4 parts and appropriate appliqués made in each of them.

Design idea No. 4. Similarly, you can expand on the theme “Weather”: in one part it’s cloudy and raining, in another the sun is shining and the grass is green, in the third everything is white with snow.

Design idea No. 5. The rug can also represent one large house or a castle with many windows and doors.

So, what developmental elements can you sew onto a rug:

• Sun. Buttons are sewn onto the sun as eyes and nose. The rays are made of ribbons that are attached to only one edge. Some ribbons have buttons on them. Looking at the sun and feeling the buttons, the baby will remember where his eyes, nose, mouth, and rays are.

• Cloud #1. There is a rustling plastic bag sewn inside the cloud. When Taisiya and I rustle a cloud, we say that since it is making noise, it means it will rain soon.

• Cloud No. 2. In this cloud, rain can not only gather, but also begin for real. In order to see the rain, the baby will have to unzip the zipper and take out the ribbons from the cloud. If you want sunny weather, fold the ribbons back and fasten the clasp.

• House. A window and a door open in the house. The window is locked with a button, the door with a hook. If the baby manages the locks, he will see who is hiding inside. Such surprises are very attractive to kids and motivate them to play around with the tricky clasps.

• Tree.“Apples” are attached to the tree using Velcro. Each “apple” has its own filling: beans, rice, paper candy wrappers, etc. “Apples” can not only be picked from the tree and hung again. You can also put them somewhere. For this purpose, you can sew a basket-shaped pocket nearby. We put our “apples” in the train trailers.

• Car, road and mountain. Children also really like moving elements. We have a car moving on the rug. There is a thin black ribbon stretched from the house to the mountain along which the car can be moved. Thus, it turns out that our car drives away from the house, passes along the road behind a tree, then drives over the mountain and disappears there.

• Steam locomotive carriages. The trailers are pockets. Each pocket hides a character. To prevent the inserted toy from getting lost, it is advisable to attach it to the mat with a ribbon.

• Steam locomotive. Caps from plastic bottles along with necks are sewn in as locomotive wheels. If you use lids different sizes, it will be more interesting, and you can also reinforce the concepts of “big-small”. Under each lid there is a surprise - a small applique with the image of an animal.

• Bridge and river. The bridge over the river is made from part of a belt with a buckle on it. Thanks to this bridge, the child will develop another useful skill - unfastening and fastening seat belts. And, as usual, to the delight of the baby, a surprise awaits him under the bridge - a fish.

• Christmas tree. If your child wants to decorate the Christmas tree with garlands, he will need to handle the lacing. And if you bend the branches of the Christmas tree, you can see a hedgehog hiding there.

After the main part of the work on the rug is completed, sew the fabric on the wrong side.

Always remember that the baby will not spare your creation, he will use it to its full potential. Therefore, try to sew all the elements of the rug as tightly as possible to avoid tearing off small parts. It is advisable to finish the edges of the appliqués with an overcast stitch to prevent them from crumbling.

In my experience, a developmental mat becomes truly interesting for a child from about 1 year of age and does not lose its relevance for a very long time. The baby will gradually master the elements of the rug. At first, he will only feel and examine, watching with curiosity how you unbutton and fasten the clasps before his eyes, but he will soon understand that he himself can unscrew and unfasten something. Already at the age of 1 year 3 months, a child will most likely learn to cope with Velcro and zippers. In our house, an educational rug is one of the most “long-lasting” games; it is clearly not a toy that is played for at most 2 evenings. My daughter takes out the rug from time to time and enthusiastically plays on it to this day.

I wish you success and interesting ideas in making your own educational mat! And be sure to tell us about your ideas! I think they will be useful to many mothers.

Loving parents, trying to develop their child from birth, use modern techniques and all kinds expensive toys. Recently, developmental mats have been invented specifically for these purposes. You can buy such a rug in a store, but many women prefer to make it with their own hands, because it is not at all difficult to do. In this article we will tell you how to make DIY educational mat for children from 0 to 3 years old, and we will show photo the most original ideas.

Educational mat for a small child

An educational mat is a textile or knitted cloth, decorated with bright appliqués, with movable elements for play placed on it. It is sometimes supplemented with a frame for hanging toys. This rug gives children the opportunity to develop from the first days of life, and is designed for use up to 3 years of age.

Developmental mat for newborns

Playing with an educational mat will help:

Did you know: a child’s brain is not fully developed at the time of birth. In the first months and years of life, the most active growth and development of nerve connections in the brain occurs. This process, and the number of connections created, is influenced by the environment in which the child grows up and how he is dealt with.

Developmental mat for babies

For a child, the developmental mat will be the largest and useful toy, which never gets boring, and for mom - the main thing visual aid for activities with the baby. When the child grows up and begins to sit independently, he will be able to play with it and develop without outside help. Bright applications and a large number of All kinds of elements will occupy the child’s attention for a long time, and you will get the opportunity to relax a little or do household chores. During joint activities It is necessary to show the child what actions can be performed with objects placed on the mat, and to get him to complete the assigned tasks.

Educational mat for little ones

Advantages of a homemade rug

Advice: make a rug with a spare size so that as the child grows up, you can add new developmental elements that are appropriate for his age. It will “grow” with the child and will always be new and interesting.

Making a developmental mat

We make a developmental mat with our own hands

First, you need to decide what exactly you want to see on your rug and draw a rough sketch on a piece of paper. Then choose a material suitable in size and texture for the base of the rug and for its lining. To make the rug soft and warm, you will need padding polyester or warm coat fabric. The latter will help the mat better keep its shape and not wrinkle during play.

Ideas for an educational square rug

Advice: choose natural or half natural ones for the face covering. synthetic fabrics. They must have a stable color and not accumulate static electricity. Chintz, linen, gabardine, and suiting fabrics with natural wool fibers are suitable. For lining, choose a non-slip material. Do not use satin or satin. It is better to take chintz, cotton jersey, linen or corduroy, and woolen suiting fabrics.

Bright and colorful educational mat for children

Preparation of accessories

Collect all the scraps and unnecessary things that you don’t mind cutting up. Try to choose different textures, bright fabrics, with interesting patterns. Wash and iron everything. Look around your house for threads, buttons and locks. Find different colored laces, buttons and beads. Gather small toys and boxes together. All this will be useful to you in your work and this will be enough to get started.

Photo of a model educational rug for children

Then, as needed, you can search and select necessary materials. You may need ribbons, elastic bands, and Velcro. Metal and plastic rings, Kinder surprise boxes and broken rattles will come in handy. You can use multi-colored wool threads of different thicknesses.

Important! Do not use toys with small parts that cannot be secured to the mat; small children put everything in their mouth and can swallow them! Do not use materials that crumble, break or come off!

Preparing the base

DIY educational mat for a baby

Cut panels of the same size from the main fabric, from the lining fabric and from the padding polyester. Lay them out in three layers so that the padding polyester is inside, and connect them together. Finish the edges with an overlocker, edging, or a simple hem. The base for the rug is ready.

Photo of an educational mat with overlays

Creating a playing field

On the prepared basis we create a playing field according to the sketch. It could be a forest, a lake, or flower bed, a road for cars and a river for ships. You can make a green meadow and a blue sky with clouds. We cut the parts of the required size and color, fold the edges and sew them onto the rug, first by hand and then by sewing machine.

Educational mat with small details for a small child

Tip: place the parts on a soft adhesive base (non-woven fabric), it will be easier to work with them and they will look better.

Making game elements

This is the main and most labor-intensive part of the work. You can make flowers, butterflies or mushrooms, come up with fairy houses and castles. Make cars, airplanes or boats, sew any small animals or birds. Show your imagination. They can be sewn or fixed movably, on cords or ribbons, or attached to the rug using Velcro or buttons.

Educational mat in bright colors

Tip: to make the game elements voluminous, use padding polyester to fill them.

Interesting ideas

Tip: To make a lake, use a piece of clear plastic or organza and place the fish underneath. For grass, a fleecy fabric of a matching color is suitable.

Educational mat with houses, butterflies and toys

Securing elements to the mat

According to the sketch you came up with, place the finished elements on the rug. Sew buttons, laces and Velcro, secure toys, place game characters in places. Close the clasps and lace up the pockets. Complete each developmental composition according to the sketch you created.

Important! Check the reliability of fastening of small parts, the strength of cords and threads with beads, the integrity of loops and boxes!

An original idea for a developmental mat for a baby

Developmental activities with a mat

Did you know: children who are regularly tutored are, by the age of two, ahead of their peers in development, and their vocabulary is 300 words higher.

The idea of ​​a beautiful educational mat

Having spent a little time making a developmental mat, you will use it for your child's development for several years. You will always find something to keep your baby busy and something to play with him. A bright and colorful rug will decorate a child's room and become a favorite place to play. Made with love by your hands, it will bring your son or daughter a lot of joy and leave warm memories for a lifetime.

Developmental mat for babies

DIY educational mat for children from 0 to 3 years old 39 photo ideas:

So let's get started.

The dimensions of the rug are 1m by 1m.
1. Required materials:
- base fabric with a children's pattern. Calico, 2 m
- plastic hoop, diameter 90cm
- plain fabric, 4 colors (let’s call it background), 30 cm each. The ideal option is a raincoat fabric with fleece.
- padding polyester 1.5 m
- Velcro tape (Velcro) white and black
- laces, elastic bands, ribbons, fabrics of different textures, etc.
- rustling candy wrappers :))))

2. Cut the fabric- base and plain fabrics.

Those. we get:

Two pieces of base fabric: 1m by 1m and 63cm by 63cm

Two pieces of plain fabrics 21.5 cm by 1 m
- two pieces of plain fabrics 21.5 cm by 63 cm

The remains of plain fabrics are used to sew developmental elements.
This cutting is the most convenient in terms of assembling the rug, so in this master class we will consider it. I make allowances with a good margin - as much as one and a half cm, just in case.

3. Sew developmental elements onto the background.
There are several rules here (we focus on ages from 3-5 months):
- large
- contrasting
- It's clear
- reliable and safe
- ban on small details
You shouldn’t puff and overload the mat with development tools; a child at this age will not appreciate it. It’s also better to save all sorts of locks, zippers, etc. for a later age.

We take into account that children love to fiddle with strings, pull rustling leaves, ears, wings, open and close, find something that is not immediately visible, touch different textures. Don’t forget that what we are depicting will need to be named to the child and told something.
Here, for example: House. There are flowers on the window, clothes are drying on a line nearby (we call it with an older child).

We open the rustling door (fastening is Velcro)... And it turns out that a girl lives in the house! I like to make the eyes from black Velcro, the soft half. I just cut it out and sew it tightly by hand. I sewed the second half of Velcro onto the palms - with hooks, so you can play the favorite children's game "peek-a-boo" with your palms. The girl's arms are like one cord: you pull one arm, the other becomes shorter. The hair is tightly sewn yarn.

And a girl can giggle at a frog that catches butterflies with a net))))).

And so on. Other examples of developmental elements can be found in my posts about rugs: http://happynata.blogspot.ru/2014/03 and http://happynata.blogspot.ru/2014/02

4. We assemble the front part of the rug from pieces.

First we sew the short pieces to the central part. It is imperative to maintain an allowance of exactly 1.5 cm! Now we sew on the long pieces. Same with the allowance.

All developmental elements should be directed towards the center so that the child can, after twisting and turning, choose for himself what interests him or crawl from one element to another. central part Actually, that’s what it’s for, to lie down and crawl comfortably, so we don’t attach anything here!

This is roughly what you should get at the end of this stage:

5. Making arcs.

We saw off two arcs from the hoop, 125 cm and 132 cm long.

We cut the padding polyester - two cuts of 1.5 m in length and approximately along the circumference of the arc (with a margin) in width, i.e. about 10-15 cm. Accuracy is not important here.

Now we need to wrap the arcs with this padding polyester. We wrap and strengthen well with threads:

This is what you should end up with:

Now we cover the arcs with fabric.

Hoops can be thin or thick, so I can’t give the exact dimensions of the parts. We wrap a measuring tape around the resulting arc (not tightly) and add allowances. This will be the width of the fabric cut, take the length to be 1.5 m - we will cut off the excess on the spot. Naturally, we cut off two of these))).

We fold the fabric with the right side inward, stitch it, sewing on loops and ties along the way, if necessary. Below I’ll write how to sew a clever thing that makes these ties unnecessary. We turn it inside out and insert the arcs there. And for now we put it aside.

6. Sew the rug and quilt it with padding polyester.

Don't turn it out yet. We cut the padding polyester 1m by 1m and put it on top. We grab it in the corners and in the middle of the sides to the rug. Now he won’t move or get lost anywhere.

Turn it inside out. Sew it up.

We quilt along the connecting lines of the fabrics and somewhere else, if we are not too lazy))). The main thing is to baste it first, because when sewing, the padding polyester will absolutely pull the fabric to the side.

7. Attaching the arches to the mat.

Of all the options I considered, I liked this one. The arcs are threaded through the holes and secured on the inside with wide Velcro. Firstly, it is fast (and when a child cries, minutes count), and secondly, it is reliable - tested over several months of daily use.

So. we make four slits (through and through) in the four corners - not far from the junctions of the background and the central part. And we sheathe it as best we can))). I used bias tape.

Sew with reverse side Velcro - near the cut, closer to the outer corner.

We sew the second halves of the Velcro to the arches, having first cut off the excess and folded it in. Velcro should be located on the front surface, i.e. the center seam of the arch will be at the back. In general, try it on seven times before you start sewing.

Insert the arcs crosswise. We sew fasteners for the arcs to the bottom arc (the one that is shorter) in the middle. I like to use thick webbing and Velcro. Here's what happens: