Stocking Stuffers - Marble Maze

I saw these marble mazes on Serving Pink Lemonade and knew I had to make some.  I'm always up for a quiet, keep-busy, activity item that I can throw in a tote bag or my purse!  I spent many an hour in a waiting room with two preschoolers for therapy appointments last summer (joy!) and would have loved to have had these then!  I had made up a crate with travel/waiting room items and would grab a few each time, but these would have made a great addition.  Also, from having been thrust into the therapy world for a child with special needs, a little bell went ringing in my head when I saw these marble mazes - good fine motor skills activity!

I bought a pack of craft felt in assorted colors, and a bag of marbles.  Then I searched "simple mazes" on Google, went to images, browsed and made some sketches.

Take one sheet of felt and fold it in half.

Start sewing on one of the short ends, and continue around till you get about a third of the way through the last side (you don't sew on the folded edge).  I sewed at 1/4" and then went back and zig-zagged the edge.

Turn it right-side out, and slip one marble inside the opening.  Then tuck the opening edges in about 1/4" and top-stitch closed.  Hand-sewing it shut would probably look nicer, but I wasn't up for that much work for this project.  Ha!

Then I used my sketches, a ruler, and a pen, to mark lines on top for the maze.  The first few, I really made sure I had it down before I went back to the machine.  By the time I had made several though, I skipped the pen and ruler and just winged it.

Top-stitch along the lines to create your maze.  You will probably have to slide your marble around inside the felt as you go, to make sure it's not too close to the needle.  I started at one end and then moved the marble to that half and went on to the rest so it was out of my way.

**All my sewing lines are 1" apart to leave room for the marble to be pushed through.

Here are the finished mazes...starting at most complicated maze and working down to simplest.

Then, because I knew my two year old would be grumpy if his big brothers got something he didn't, I made two more very simple ones half the size (that would be cutting the full piece of felt in half first and then proceeding the same way).

I plan on taking these to church, along with the Pocket Activity Wraps I made, as quiet things that will keep my kids occupied.  Easy to toss in my purse if we go to a restaurant or have to be in a waiting room, too.  It might even help with grocery trips.  That makes this mom happy : )

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