Traveling with a Toddler Part 1- Dino Travel Mat

Last weekend we went on vacation with my in laws for a few days. In preparation for the 3 hour car drive and then restaurant visits, confinement in a hotel, and just the need for new entertainment on the go, I made up this Dino Travel Land.

I got the idea from another blog I had checked out. She had more of a dino mat that would be kept at home and used in a play room, and I wanted something more versatile. When I saw the dino fabric at Wal-Mart I picked up a piece to use for my appliques.

I rummaged through some fabric I already had in my stash... I took some brown cotton and a striped flannel piece which I've had forever to be my front and back. Cut them in 12x12 squares and applied some interfacing to both pieces to add some stability.

While making it, I wanted to do something to it that would make it portable and easy to carry along with us, so I decided to add a button to the flannel side and then use a ribbon and button hole to go across and fold it into fourths in order to close....

In the above picture, the button is on the left side and the ribbon is on the right.

Then I took the dinosaur fabric and cut out the dinos I wanted and placed everything onto the brown background, pinned it in place and applied stabilizer behind the fabric so I could use a tight zig-zag stitch and sew them into place to make sure they last long term. (Like you would when you applique something.)

 After everything was in place, I laid the two pieces of fabric together with right sides facing each other, sewed along all four sides, leaving about a 2" opening, snipped my corner edges and then did a top stitch along the entire perimeter to close up my opening and reinforce everything.

I added some small dinosaurs we had bought for my son at the toy store and let him get started at his own creative playtime.

I did make up a zippered pouch (not pictured here) to hold the folded play mat and dinosaurs while we're on the go.