For new parents like myself, this is a great DIY starter project for you and your baby. This easy infant felt craft can be completed and given to your baby in under an hour.
Easy Infant Felt Craft
My son loves playing with different fabrics and when he’s getting bored the easiest thing I can do is hand him whatever is safe and near by. He plays with his own socks, wash cloths, zippers…so basically laundry. Crafting with felt is super easy. Felt is a soft and colorful fabric for infants to play with safely. I put together this easy infant felt craft so my baby would have fun while working on some developmental milestones.
Crafting After Baby
This project is really a “Don’t Hurt Yourself” method to getting back into crafting after having a baby. Before I had Ro, I crafted ALL the time. I was kind of surprised at my lack of inspiration during pregnancy and postpartum. My friends would tell me to give it time, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I ever needed to craft again.
The answer came to me when Ro was around 5 months old. I was experiencing a growing concern over the fact that he didn’t seem interested in being mobile. He wasn’t rolling over. He wasn’t scooting. People would say, “All babies are different!” but I was still feeling a little helpless. After a million Amazon searches related to anything about crawling, I realized I could DIY or spend a lot of money on something he might not use. This project was just what I needed to catch the crafting bug again.
Creative Re-purposing
I found a $30 foam bed wedge online. It is meant to relieve back and neck pain but to me it looked like a great climbing obstacle for Ro. Plus, the wedge would be nice to have on hand when Mama and Dada have aching bodies.
Climbing blocks for toddlers are not cheap. This wedge was the perfect affordable prop I could re-purpose to help Ro work out his muscles. The wedge converts into a block and is covered with royal blue synthetic fabric. This fabric feels a lot like felt. Once we started using the blue block, I saw the potential for more creative re-purposing.
Baby Steps
Now that my baby is almost 11 months old he is learning faster and getting around more than ever! As another way to learn shapes and colors, I made shapes out of felt that would easily affix to his blue block. My hope was by decorating the block, Ro would begin to use it on his own for crawling, standing and taking his first steps. To keep the project easy going, I planned an easy infant felt craft. Even if he doesn’t end up playing with it, nbd. Baby steps for both of us.
Felt is the Easiest
This project takes zero skill. Felt is colorful, durable, and costs practically nothing. Felt fabric can be found online or in any craft and big brand store. You can cut and glue it easily, and it adheres to itself and other fuzzy fabrics making it very versatile.
Make a felt “chalk board” by framing fabric and making felt letters. You can drape felt over a Boppy for tummy-time, or use a few yards of felt to make a play mat. Consider what your goals are for your baby and how they will play with felt best.
Help & Tips
- While I was working, I put Ro in his walker to keep him away from my scissors. I gave him a stack of felt squares I was not using. He was occupied for most of the project. He had to use his little fingers to pull the squares apart. Working those fine motor skills!
- For fun shapes, I found it helpful to use some of Ro’s toys for inspiration. I loosely traced the different shapes onto card stock.
- Use the card stock shapes as a pattern for cutting. Place the card stock shape on the felt square and cut around it. I decided against drawing directly on the felt knowing that when it comes to infants, everything goes in the mouth.
- Don’t be afraid to draw freehand. Your best ideas may come this way. You can find lots of quick drawing tutorials online, but the good news is your client is a baby and babies have no idea what a perfect star looks like! I drew a simple cat and dog face freehand because we have both animals in our house and they are great words to learn.
- There are so many easy crafts for kids using felt. Hang on to any unused felt and add them to your arts and crafts supplies. For my own amusement, I used my felt scraps to make a mountain scene with little felt snow caps and a bright felt sun. The pieces are too small for Ro to play with right now, but I’m hanging on to them for when he is older.
Time to get to it!
- Felt squares
- Scissors
- Shapes/objects for tracing
- Card Stock for tracing
- Base (foam block, picture frame, play mat etc…)
- Use your scissors to cut shapes out of felt
- You’re done! It’s literally the easiest!
Printable Whale Coloring Page
