Toddler Gift- Car Cozy

I was so excited to hear that my aunt, cousin and little second-cousin were coming to visit my son and I. I knew I wanted to make my second-cousin Elijah something special. So I pulled up my list of toddler projects and picked the perfect gift. I found this Car Cozy at Homemade By Jill, my favorite site!! 

I loved this project the minute I saw it and new that I would be making it more than once! I also saw the same idea at My Litttle Gems. I took both tutorials and modified them a bit to suit my needs. My Little Gems also has a few kids projects using place mats. One example is a child's tool belt out of a place mat, I will be making this at some point! I took that idea of using place mats for this project.
I started with the place mat, tan on one side, black on the other I stitched a line down the middle, horizontally, separating it into two sides. 
Then I stitched on the pockets with a piece of flannel folded in half for added strength. 
Once the pocketed was stitched I stitched the lines separating each pocket. I used Homemade By Jill's number template to trace the numbers using fabric markers -that is what I had.
Next, the road lines. I started by folding the edges over and pressing them. I then stitched around the sides of each dashed line. 

At this point I turned over the place mat to work on the other side. Using flannel folded over again, I stitched the handle. I sewed the hook and loop on one side and then hand-stitched the other side to the place mat.
I used Homemade By Jill's car template to trace the car I adhered the car using fusible tape. I stitched the hook and loop to the car. 
I was just about finished when I remembered that I had some cute vehicle fabric that I thought I could use to accent the project. 

I cut out pieces of the fabric; the cars, truck, helicopter, airplane, as well as the red and yellow signs. I adhered them using the fusible tape. 


Lastly, all that was left was to insert the matchbox cars! I absolutely love this project and can't wait for my little man to get bigger so I can make this for him! Thanks Jill and Sharla- I coped that!