Thursday, March 12, 2009

A path to the magical forest, part 1



Hi!

I wrote in an earlier posting about a magical forest for the children's room. I have been asked about instructions how to make the fantastic hiding place, "Suikalemätäs". In English the translation could be something like "the fabric strip shrub". Mätäs is hard to translate, it is not exactly a shrub, it is more like a big bunch of moss, grass and stuff like that.

The instructions in Finnish are in the book Maja by Mari Savio and Kati Rapia, that I referred to in my previous posting.

Find an old round table cloth and a small table that your children can fit under (round table is probably best, but I used a rectangle shaped and it works fine too). Check that the table cloth covers most of the table.

You can use all your old fabric strips for this! Cut or rip them in strips (I made about 8 inches or 20 cm long and an inch or 2 cm wide). This is fun to do with your child too.

Draw annual rings on the table cloth. Make sure they are less far apart than the fabric strips are long so they will cover each other.

Sew the strips from one end along the annual rings so that they are a little bit on top of each other. You can make a hole for the head in the middle and wear the creation too (or your children can if you don't feel like it).

I cut an opening for a door too and pulled it aside and tied it to a table leg with a couple of the strips.

TTYL,
Sirpa

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