As explained at the Play Mat, I had my heart set on roads. So eventually, I decided to make felt roads sections that could be placed any which way. While looking around, I found some templates for paper/laminated roads and decided those were a good starting point. Of course, I made some changes. First, I wanted all the roads to be 10 cm wide, the ones in the template were just about not 10 cm, so this meant some readjusting. Then I decided I wanted everything to be in increments of 10-20-30, so I cut off pieces here and added some there to achieve that. With the shapes decided, I cut them out of my felt. The result is 1 roundabout, 1 crossing, 2 t-splits, 4 bends, 2 long curvy roads, 4 long straight roads, 4 short straight roads, and one.. parking lot? An end bit that I felt would be stupid to waste.
When they were cut out, I really wanted to add road markers too. I first tried by fusing some felt to the top, but it was easily pluck-off-able and I decided that wasn’t good for a young person. So I turned to the next option, fabric paint. Since the Netherlands was still in lockdown, it had to be ordered online and I just hoped it would work. Turns out, it does. I made some more templates, cut out the sections where I wanted markings to be and got to painting. Every section then needed to be ironed for 5 minutes. This seems like a long time and my iron has an auto-off function so I don’t know if they have been ironed ‘enough’. However, I also test painted some numbers onto a shirt and popped it in the laundry and they didn’t come off, so I called it good. I hope that they will be useful for some time to come.
