47+ Different Ways to Play with Play Silks

Have you ever wondered how to play with play silks? Well we've got you covered with our latest blog article which is overflowing with some play silk inspo! 

I am so very excited to be adding Play Silkies to our toy shop!  I LOVE supporting an Australian business and a fellow business owner who is part of my Aussie Toy Shop Cooperative!  So to compliment our new products, I thought it might be perfect to write a companion blog to feature alongside them! 

Fabric of all kinds are an amazing resource to be included in a child's learning space or toy box. Fabric  can be made from wool, cotton, linen, satins and polyesters. Of course natural fabric is the ultimate sensory experience, but in terms of sustainability, using items you have at home such as old scarves or purchasing scarves from op-shops or fabric scraps from haberdashery stores is a fabulous way to enrich children's play and learning. 

There is truly something truly magical about silk though: their weight, strength, translucence and colours make them truly unique and inspiring of much play and creativity.

I've come up with 47+ ways to play with your play silks! You thought you had1 play silk? No! You have 47+ different play opportunities! Let's get started, shall we?

10 Ways to Dress-up and Pretend with Play Silkies play silks

1. You can carefully  tie your play silk around your neck in a soft tie, use a clip or clothes peg or tuck it into your clothes to make a cape and become a superhero, or a regal ruler! 
2. You can tie your play silks around your waste, or tuck it into your tights as a skirt and become a dancer
3. You can make  pretend to have long hair and pretend to be a beautiful ethereal creature 
4. Wrap around both legs as a mermaid tail
5. You can braid three play silks together to make fairy tale Rapunzel hair, let your hair down from the window of the tower! But be careful of that witch! She's on the prowl and might chop your silky locks off!
6. Tie one play silky to each pony tale and have long fairy or mermaid hair!
7. You can drape your play silk and wear it as a Harry Potter inspired wizard's cloak.
8. You can wear your play silk as a baby sling for your favourite baby doll, so that you can take them with you wherever you go.
9. Tie the play silky the middle and then hold the corners of the top ends and make your own set of fairy or butterfly wings. Some hair ties might make this a little easier for young hands! Then you can fly through the air and flutter from flower to flower in the garden! 
10. Wear an elastic waistband and fold some play silks though the band and you will have a beautiful dress that will flow in the wind as you turn on the dance floor! Whether you're headed to a grand ball, or dancing barefoot in the fields, you'll be sure to have the most beautiful dress! 

12 Ways to Decorate with Play Silkies play silks

1. Mini play silks can make the most colourful and beautiful bunting
2. Decorate a birthday table and celebrate in style.
3. Use the play silks as curtains across a window to soften the light in a play space (but don't leave them up or in direct sunlight as you don't want to fade the colours!)
4. Cover a Waldorf-Stiener play stand or play frame with a jumbo Play Silkie or two to create a magical nook!
5. You could make your own cubby houses and use our play silks to decorate! 
6. You can hang your play silks over your bed frame and look up at them and float away on your dreams.
7. Drape as a tablecloth or over the top of shelf and display child's beautiful toys and resources on them. 
8. Play silks not only make a beautiful gift, they can be used as gift wrap for other gifts! 
9. Our Jumbo play silks would make the most magical backdrop for a home based theatre performance.
10. Play silks would be the perfect curtain for a home made puppet theatre! All you would need would be a large cardboard box, some paints and then of course your play silkies! 
11. Our earth inspired play silkies would be the most perfect backdrop for a nature table in a home or classroom! 
12. You can hang the play silkies across a doorway and use them as a colourful curtain which would catch the breeze in the most magical way! 

Photo credit: Yasmin Rose Photography

11 Ways to Imagine with Play Silkies play silks

1. A blue play silk is the perfect ocean for a boat to sail the seven seas ... 
2. Our vibrant play silks would make the most epic firey hot lava flowing from the top of a volcano.
3. Play silks can be used in dolls beds as a blanket for a doll or favourite plush animal.
4. Play silks are the softest most beautiful baby carriers for your favourite doll or plush animals.
5. Make a nature play scene- using our sherbet play silkie, earth play silkie, fairy floss play silkie and sunset play silkie.
6. Use your play couches, or cushions and pillows at home to make an epic ship and use a play silk for a flag. Are you pirates looking for treasure? Or adventurers looking for the next lands to discover?
7. You can make a pretend campfire with branches, sticks you collect in your garden or bush walks, or wooden blocks and then use a vibrant firey play silk for your fire! 
8. A blue-green play silk would be the most gorgeous river flowing underneath a wooden bridge. 
9. Blue play silks can be arranged around your wooden medieval castle to create a moat to protect the castle! 
10. Use a play silk as an indoor picnic blanket for your next tea party or even a Teddy Bear's Picnic! Who says you can't picnic inside?
11. Go fish! Use a blue play silk as the sea, add some magnetic fish, a magnet and a home made fishing rods and use the play silk fishing on a blue sea.

Photo credit: Yasmin Rose Photography

14 Ways to Play Inside and Outside with Play Silkies play silks

1. Play peek-a-boo with a little one! Play silks are the perfect sensory peek-a-boo fabric as they are so soft and gentle. 
2. Make a colour matching game using our multicoloured play silks! Place the play silk on the ground, and then you have to hunt around home, your early learning service, preschool, classroom or garden to find items that match those colours! How many can you find?
3. You can find some branches or use outdoor furniture in your garden or even a shrub to create a fort outdoors with your play silks. You can use clothes pegs to clip them in place!
4. Place a ball in the middle of your play silk and tie it in place. You can then throw your play silk comet and play the most wonderful magical game of catch with your friends. 
5. Tie a small weight, a marble or a pebble in one corner of your play silk, then throw it and watch how it moves through the air!
6. Put your play silk in your tuff tray, water trough, or any large tub and see how the silk moves through the water. How does it feel? How does it move? 
7. Tie your play silks to your swing so you can see how it flows in the wind behind you as you swing. Does it change the higher and faster you go?
8. Find yourself an epic stick and make a flag by tying one end to a stick using yarn or a hair tie and wave it away in the air!
9. Do you have a trampoline? Grab your play silk and hold it while you jump!
10. Using clothes pegs or wooden play clips, you can make a tent over a rope tied between two trees or some outdoor furniture or patio posts! 
11. Take two of the smaller play silks and using twine, yarn or hair ties, tie them onto your bike handles and ride like the wind!
12. You can tie your play silks to a fort or climbing dome or play structure either in your garden, at your preschool or early learning service or a park if you're having a long day of play outside.
13. Grab your fave play silk and then run across a field holding it out behind you and watch the silk flow in the air!
14. You can scrunch your play silks up in your hands and then throw them up as high as you can in the air and watch them float back down.

Photo credit: Yasmin Rose Photography

Main Image credit:  @for.the.love.of.james.and.evie