Felt Fishing Pond...

Continuing on with my felt toy Christmas gifts... I made a felt fishpond complete with a cinch sack playmat.

For the cinch sack playmat I used leftover drop cloth from my reupholstered chaise lounge... And the inside fabric/water was initially a scrap fabric I found at Savers and used for this kids apron.

I cut out the rough size I needed for a half circle since I didn't have a scrap wide enough for the full circle. Then I traced the half on the other scrap and layer them on top of each other and folded that in half to make a 1/4 circle.

I trimmed up the rounded edge so it was all eve.

I sewed the two halves together down the middle. You can skip this step if you have fabric wide enough.

Then I laid the two right sides together and sewed almost entirely around the whole circle. Leaving a 3" opening so I could turn it right side out.

Then 1" from the edge I sewed around the entire circle.... This is to hold the cinch rope in place.

If I was more worried about the look and function I would have bought bought some metal grommets, and installed the where I made the openings for the rope. I cut 4 openings around the circle and threaded the rope all the way around.

I hand stitched the edges of the fabric to help the thread not to unravel. I spy my little helpers nose... Mac loves a good project!

When you are ready to pack up, you just pull out the rope from the four openings and it clinches closed.

Ta-da!

And to open you just pull the sides out.

And there you have play and cleanup all in one.

Here you have it all laid out... Fish all ready to be caught.

The fish I didn't take any process pictures of... All you do is cut out on the felt a fish shape. Again bigger than the final product. I sewed around the edge leaving the tail open, turned it right side out, put a magnet into the nose and stuffed it. Then I sewed the tail closed with the sewing machine.

I took scraps of felt on some of the fish and sewed them onto one side of the felt before I sewed it right side together and flipped it inside out. And now you have a colorful fish!

I made a felt bait worm with green felt sewed into a cylinder, put a magnet in the end. Then tacked the top and bottom to the body for the head and tail.

The rod is a bamboo I got from the back hard of a house Drew was working on. And done! Just like that!