Progress: Snuffle Mats

I want to begin by recapping my plan and updating my progress for my final design project. I plan to make three snuffle mats, one for each of my two dogs and one for my cat. A snuffle mat is a flat mat that has bits of fabric attached to it that create pockets and folds that hold treats. The point of a snuffle mat is to encourage enrichment for the pet. If you want to ready more about snuffle mats see my past post here: https://www.aesdes.org/2024/02/28/main-project-plan-snuffle-mat/

Currently, the progress I have made almost aligns with the timeline I created. When an oval is completely filled in, it means that I have completed that step.

As stated in a previous post, I already have all the materials I need to complete this project so I do not need to worry about any pieces coming in time. I got the materials very early on when I set my heart on this project.

I have the base parts of all the three mats. I used the same colored fabric for all three. I met the deadline that I had made for the mat bases. They are each a dark olive green color. I made the mat bases each two layers to make them more sturdy. I then hand sewed the two pieces of fabric together. The finished bases are shown below.

I have also began creating the flowers and plants, but I am running behind on building all the plants. Cutting out the petals and gluing them together is taking longer than I had originally anticipated. After mapping some of my finished plants on a mat base, I realized I need about 30 plants of each color. Which is a lot more than I had originally thought. So far, I have finished 20 plants for each of the green fabrics that I had chosen. Each color is a different shaped plant. I created the plants by cutting out long strips of the fabrics and cutting petals in each strip. Depending on the plant, I then cut the strips down to anywhere between 10 to 16 pedals. I then glued and rolled them up to create the 3D effect. This is shown below.

The timeline shows that I had originally planned to have the flowers finished by April 8th. Since I did not reach this deadline, I hope to have them finished by April 15th. That will give me two days to sew the flowers onto the bases of the mats. I think two days is fine for this deadline because I think the most time consuming part is making the plants themselves. As long as I continuously work a bit each weekday, I should be able to meet the rest of my deadlines. If timing becomes an issue I will work on finishing one or two of the mats instead of all three. I can then finish the third this summer (because I still want these for each pet).