100 Things To Do With a Playsilk

Play silks have been been a top toy in our home from capes and maiden hair under a felt crown to puppet show and even stop motion LEGO movie backdrops!

Definitely #85, playing ghost and try to scar their siblings! as well as part of our nature table (green land etc) and capes.

We have used our silks in a thousand ways, and the look of them nested on the floor or curled and tucked away in their basket is so lovely. My favorite use for them is draping them in layers over a small stump on our nature table to create the look of a hill, field, and stream. My son loves to wear them as capes and dresses.

We use ours as a soft blindfold for party games, and even when our daughter had an eye injury that needed to be kept covered.I

I’ve also tied them into bunny or baby shapes so my kids could have a “friend” when we’re on the go, or to help them feel brave, like at doctor’s appointments.

I was surprised at how many of this list we already use our play silks for, and found some great new ideas as well!!! Fun!

My nine year old daughter loves to make elaborate dresses from the silks.. my two year old son loves using the silks to make tails.. he crawls around the house meowing :) we used silks in our Easter baskets this year instead of grass. My four year old and nine year old daughters make doll hammocks and baby slings, dresses, skirts, capes, mermaid tops.. their play is endless!

My nine year old daughter loves to make elaborate dresses from the silks.. my two year old son loves using the silks to make tails.. he crawls around the house meowing :) we used silks in our Easter baskets this year instead of grass. My four year old and nine year old daughters make doll hammocks and baby slings, dresses, skirts, capes, mermaid tops.. their play is endless!

Unfortunately my son uses his silk like a giant tissue to wipe his nose sometimes 😂 But mostly it’s used as a beautiful cape. We love our silk!

As pom pom(s) to dance & jump with

Our child has been using play silks and clips as an all purpose, go-to, portable toy and decoration for these past three years of on-the-move, out-of-the-luggage, temporary housing-style living (moved overseas). From cosy tent/blanket on the plane, to draping the rainbow silk across the ceiling above the bed to make everywhere “home”, to making doll hammocks play clipped or tied between chairs, to loving dolly swaddling projects (including matching by size and swaddling a doll for each size of upside-down Grimm wooden rainbow piece — so she can then rock them all to sleep), to making her own puppet show, or wooden figures show on top of different silks, or (now she’s older), to cover and reveal a puppet scenario on the floor to us, or to set up to set up with a friend on the ledge of a play stand which they have play clipped with playsilk curtains to reveal the show or conceal the puppeteers. Recently, they have put on an evening show where the play silks are a shadow screen for fingers or wooden figures dancing behind it while one child holds and directs the flashlight. Once they presented us with handmade tickets for their show: wrapped and delivered in play silks. Another time she used a silk to make herself “invisible” to the audience when the musical instruments she was playing wouldn’t fit with them behind the play stand while her friend worked the puppets. The play silkss have been surprisingly warm and practical as blankets for our child when napping or when playing at sleep over on a bed or inside a sofa den. Like so many here, we pull them out of the basket to decorate the birthday and nature table, and to wrap gifts for the birthday table. She goes through phases of wrapping different toys she has in order to “make it secret” and then transform it again into something new by revealing it “ta da”. Or wanting to use up all of the silks in a project of wrapping up all of her toys and then giving them to us (or to her friend) and we to her to “open” as a play gift. Everything is made anew by wrapping it in a playsilk. Practicing tying a bow and knots is now fun with a playsilk. Their newest discovery is that the play clips expand far (with rubber band adjustment) to attach play silks and play cloths to the round plastic tubing of a Quadro play climbing structure build kit (indoor with a slide right now). She and her friend asked us to tie play silks capes of particular colors (as fairy/fireman capes and wings) whereupon they ran up the slide to place the two blue silks over the red and orange silks they’d clipped to the upper story — the blue silks put out the fire — also when balled up and thrown at the red and orange silks. Postal delivery is another repeated game, where they have made both levels into a den by hanging play silks all around by making the play clips very wide (and rubber bands loose). They decided later on to attach a toddler caterpillar tunnel to the slide with play silks to cover each end (for the postal delivery) so had to make the rubber bands very tight again on the clips for it to work. Each friend in their respective silky den room busily cutting long strips of paper, drawing pictures with letters on them. This playtime was improvised indoor in winter when her friend had a long leg cast. Grownups would be summoned often to supply new materials (crayons, scissors, more silks, or blue tape, when they ran out of silks), for their post office play. They tied their “messages” with a “string” made from a rolled up play silk. They’d call out “post is here!” whereupon a “message” would come hurtling down the caterpillar tunnel on the slide and out the playsilk exit at the bottom and we would untie the silk for reuse at the “post office”. So many endless inventions every time from simple to elaborate, but our children always seem to pull the play silks and the play clips out of the baskets to create new play worlds for themselves.

My son pretends he is a fire breathing dragon with the red one. He roars and then throws it out in front of him. I love the level of play that comes with the silks, his imagination just goes wild.

Make tiny parachutes from the scrap bag silk – flying puppies landing gently!

My 6 year old and 3 year old tie their small stuffed animals arms to the corners- parachute! Daughter also likes to use as a tablecloth for her tea parties and the playscapes make great “smoke” to disappear under during magic tricks.