Play farm fabric fences

Last year for Amelia's 2nd birthday I decided to make her a farm play set. It came from inspiration that struck while I looked around the toy shop for gift ideas. We already had a lot of the usual type gifts because Esther and Ellamay have had plenty of toys over their years. I really didn't know what to get for Amelia. I found some cheap plastic farm animals and the above is what I came up with.

This post is about the farm fences. I thought about making some out of paddle pop sticks but I knew they wouldn't last. And all the plastic ones that come in farm sets are usually pretty useless at standing up.

You will need some fabric (I used a fat quarter) and plastic canvas. Firstly, I used the animals to size up how high the fences should be to keep them from escaping. I made four panels of plastic canvas, 4cm by 13cm.

Adding a little extra for seam allowances, I made tubes (is there a technical term for that?) stitching the fabric right sides together. Stitch one end closed and then turn the tube right side out. Iron.

Then bend, curl and fold (whatever works) the plastic canvas and wrestle it down into the end of the tube. Do this with all 4 pieces.

Making sure that the first piece of plastic canvas is pushed into the closed end, sew a line as close to it as possible without actually stitching on it. Do this for 3 of the pieces.

Close the open end by folding the extra fabric into the tube and last piece of plastic canvas and sew it closed with the sewing machine.

And there you are! They fold up and stand up and keep those animals all together.

I thought about making a little tab on the ends so they could be joined together with Velcro, a press stud or a button, but I decided against this. They work fine without any fasteners and they are much safer for small kids too.

Here is Amelia playing with the extra fences that I have only just finished! Her birthday was in September and I have only just finished it now!

I hope you can follow what I have written here. It feels a bit clumsy. These are the easiest thing to make so get on and make some. Please let me know if you do. I would love to hear about it.