Car Mat...Part 1 Houses & Buildings

Growing up my siblings and I had some awesome toys.  Besides Legos, our favorites were all homemade.  I loved Barbies, and had amazing hand made clothes for each of them.  My dad made us lincoln logs.  One Christmas my sister and I, with help from my Dad, made blocks for my brothers.  They in turn made doll houses for us.  Now that I'm "The Mom" I have a desire to make more things for my children that come from my heart.  

One of my favorite things my mom made us was a car mat.  We loved that we could drive on the roads and go to the airport, post office, grocery store, mall, school and more then return home all in our little world.  Our favorite part of the car mat was that at each house we could park a car in the garage.   She still has the car mat, and it is still a favorite at Grandma's house.  So when I had a little boy I asked my mom if she could make him a car mat.  She has been saving up the fabric for quite some time.  

Last week my parents came out for a visit and my mom brought the fabric and her sewing machine.

We spent two full days designing, cutting, and sewing the car mat.  I pulled some fabric from my stash and my I-Spy collection too.  We had each of the children pick out the fabric for their homes--they came up with some fun fabric choices.  I think we only used the same fabric twice.

For each house or building we found a fun fabric and coordinating (or not) fabric for the roof.  Each building is doubled up on fabric (a long rectangle folded in half), the fold gives the edge of the building more strength and  durability.  The roof is done the same way, some were cut with a taper-some were left with a straight edge. We used an applique stitch or a fun straight stitch to make the doors and windows.

 The flag is sewn with a small zig-zag stitch and different color thread.  This building is the school.
For the houses we stopped sewing about 1/2 inch in from each edge leaving most of the middle open for the "garage."

 Give a little room so the bigger cars can fit in.

 If you zoom in you can see the daisies on the left side of the house.

 I found hydrangea fabric for big bush at Grandma's house.

This is my little guys house, he loves orange and green.
 For most of the buildings we sewed a light piece of fabric for a "sign."

This is Home Depot

 I'm sure you know what store this is :)

Or this?

 This is Daddy's work.

 Every car needs a gas station.  Use shoelaces for the hoses.

 Our church.  For some reason the church was the hardest building to design.

Our Temple.

 My little guy loves to find Target, McDonalds, Costco and his house on the car mat.  He is only two, but can recognize the store labels--maybe we are going to these places too much :)

Next up...


Part 2 Trains, Planes, Mountains & More