Traveling with a Toddler Part 3: Car Track

I know these blog posts on the subject are a little spaced out, bear with me. Today's toy for traveling and/or use in restaurants is perfect for any little boy (or girl) who loves those little race cars!

Take and Travel Car Garage and Track:

For this project I don't have the step by step photos, but the directions are pretty simple. I modified it from Creation Corner's carrier to make it more friendly for my little man and our needs.

This project requires- 3/8 yard for the front and back (2 pieces of 14.25"x11")
                                 - 1/8 yard for the pocket (8"x11" then folded to make it 4"x11")
                                 - 1 piece of interfacing 14.25"x11" fused to the back of one of the body pieces
                                 - 1 piece of black felt cut to make an oval race track about 9" wide
                                 - 1 elastic band
                                 - 3 small Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars

• Cut your pocket fabric.

• Cut your body front and back pieces. Fuse the interfacing to one piece on the wrong side of the fabric. 
• Take that piece of fabric with interfacing on it and pin the pocket to the bottom edge of the fabric. 
• Using a chalk pen, measure .5" and draw a line, then over 3.5" draw a line, over 3.5" draw a line, over 3.5" draw a line, then it should be .5" to the edge. 
• Using the 3.5" lines as a guide, stitch a straight seam on the chalk lines to make 3 individual pockets for the little race cars.
• Take the felt race track and pin it to the top of the fabric then using black thread stitch around the outer and inner sides of the track to keep it in place. 
• Put both body pieces of fabric with right sides together and pin in place, insert an elastic band between the fabrics where the pocket is so that the band is hidden and only a little bit of edge is sticking out, pin it in place
• Use 1/4" SA and stitch all around the edges leaving an opening about 2-3" for turning. 
• Snip your corners, turn right side out, press with hot iron to remove wrinkles, top stitch around perimeter to close up opening and reinforce everything. 
• Fill with small cars and give to a little one to enjoy!

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.