Travel play mat tutorial

I have come across these amazing things called quiet books, from this I got quite a few ideas on the design of the play mat. We are going on holiday soon and I want something to entertain my son with so thought why not a play mat to fit on the aeroplane fold down tray.

I should start off by saying that I work in an industry where I have access to these seats and went and measured a few to check what the industry standard is. My conclusion - there is no standard! I measured three different types and they varied in sizes a lot.

Tray one width 42,5 cm, depth 18-20 cm

Tray two width 33,5 cm, depth 17 cm

Tray three width 34-30 cm, depth 23cm

This project could have ended there! As I couldn't figure out how on earth I would get something to fit all of those sizes, I however do know what aeroplane type we will be flying with so was trying to figure out the size of that... well nowhere online did I find an exact measurement so made a guestimate! The finished size of this play mat is about 20cm x 40cm plus the overhang car storage.

What you will need

different coloured pieces of felt 

green cotton for background 24x42 cm

backing material for play mat 24x42 cm

two small pieces of velcro
bias binding

embroidery floss

sewing machine 

Let's get started

The first thing I did was draw out the size of this play mat on baking paper and tried to come up with the most interesting road design for such a little space. This is where it was helpful to look up at how other car mats and quiet books were made, I found somewhere that they had made their roads 2 inches wide or 5 cm wide so I did that for my roads too.

Once I was happy with my design I cut it out in black felt and started to hand stitch the road markings. It would have been good to have some embroidery floss but I had run out so used some of my white crochet thread that I use for doilies instead ;) 

Next step that I did was fasten the road onto the green backing material using a small and tight zigzag stitch with white thread (this doubles as the road markings too).

Then I was browsing internet trying to figure out what to put on my play mat! On Fiskars craft I found this amazing idea for a car wash which was instantly added to my car mat, they also have a nice version of a petrol pump but slightly too big for my mat so made a simpler version (for the hose I didn't have any extra shoe laces laying around so took a strand of black thread and wound it double and covered the end in cellotape). I have actually made two of these play mats, one for my son and one for his friend. My son's friend got a hospital and a few houses. 

The one I made for my son has got a fire station and a farm yard with a pond and tractor. The items on the car mat was either hand embroidered,glued on or machine stitched for extra safety.

The eagle eyed will notice the fastener sticking out from the one I made for my son, well I forgot how I made the previous one and did it differently! Both ways work but I think I prefer the first version for that. Another difference is that I added straps on second one for attaching to the aeroplane tray ( I wrongly assumed that Ryanair doesn't have fold down trays). For the four attaching straps I used bias biding each piece 22 cm long, perhaps long but gives extra leeway on attaching to the aeroplane tray.

This is the first version I made, the tab is 12 cm long and 4,5 cm wide. I sewed two of those pieces together and added some roundness to the end of the tab and cut off the excesses fabric on the inside, when I turned it the right way round I added the velcro the rounded end. and fastened to the back piece of the play mat 2,5 cm up from one of the edges and 13 cm in, I sewed this twice to hid the raw edge of the tab. The other piece of velcro was attached 3 cm from the edge and  2,5 cm in. 

The fabric piece I used for the storage pockets was 32 cm long and 40 wide. I started off by folding the piece in half and press with the iron, then sew a seam close to the edge (this is at the top of the car pockets) then turn up 7 cm and sew each long end to close it in to a big pocket, next step was to sew the small containers for each car 6,5 cm from each other. Final step was attaching it all to each other, making sure not to get the tabs and pockets caught up in the seams! Remember to leave a little opening for hand stitching with ladder stitch at the end. Once it was sewn up I added the numbers to the car pockets and glued them on

The numbers on the pockets add on an extra element of learning with the different colours as well as numbers. My son loves matching the cars into the pockets with numbers in same colour as the car!

And best of all, it folds up small to not take much space when travelling! Hopefully it will help keep your kids busy during long and boring times. x