Car Mat/Blanket Tutorial

Believe it or not, I am not a sewer.  I wish I could tell you what a baste stitch is with confidence, but I just can't.  So imagine my sweet husband's surprise when I decided to tackle this....

Car Mat/Blanket All Finished!!  Yippee!!

 I had the idea in my brain and went searching the Internet to see if I could find something as a jumping off point.  I hit the jack pot when I got here.  This was almost exactly what I wanted to do.  The main difference was I wanted curvy roads.  As you can see I found out really quick that to get all that I wanted on my little guy's blanket I had to compromise the curvy roads and race track for the greater good.  I am going to attempt to help any other novice (or not so novice) sewers out there that want to do something extraordinary.  Every time I show this, I get a huge wow.  Here's hoping my little guy feels the same way when I have it all ready and wrapped for his birthday in May (I know the clock is ticking away).

So you will need:
1.   IMAGINATION AND PATIENCE
2.   Paper, stencils, pencils, ruler, erasers, and other office supplies
3.   Fabric scraps
4.   1 1/2 yards of a main base fabric (mine is the green corduroy)
5.   Lots of thread in all sorts of shades
6.   Sewing machine
7.   Heat n Bond (or whatever brand you use.  NOVICE POINT: This can be found in major fabric stores.  It is bought usually by the bolt [they have to cut it for you].  It is white and is the ironed on glue to keep your buildings in place while you sew them down. )
8.   Ribbon and Piping (Railroad)
9.   Buttons
10. Shoelace
11. At least 1/2 yard of black felt (roads)
12. Iron and ironing board
13. Embroidery machine (OPTIONAL. My mom has one so I used it, but I would have done it by hand if she didn't have one, or just left it out)
14.  1 1/2 yards of THIN batting if desired (I didn't use any)
15.  1 3/4 yards backing material (This is on the back.  The flannel for me.)
16.  Did I mention TIME (I have been working through this process since Halloween)

Alright, the pros to this project are you will be doing this for some time.  If you don't have everything all at one time, that is ok.  Work on what you can now, put it away until you can do more.  (In my case, when my budget allowed for it, or when something was on sale and I could get it then.) The cons are that it really isn't cheap especially if you don't have fabric scraps lying around because you are just getting into sewing or don't have the room to store all you would like.  I did find some ways to pinch a penny though.  My first tip is to go to the bargain bins at all of your major fabric stores first, then hit the local quilt shop.  I know you heard quilt shop and budget in the same paragraph.  I found a bunch of small squares (which were perfect for one building or some windows) for fifty cents or less!!  It is where all of my major building fabrics came from.  I spent about five dollars on all the building fabrics there and didn't even have to go to the bargain bins for anything else...SWEET.  The next con is that this sucker takes a lot of time.  My solution is planning, planning, planning.  I think I spent the majority of two or three months thinking, sketching, and laying out plans before I ever went shopping for material.

Speaking of sketching, it's your first step....Here is what I originally wanted my blanket to end up as.

See the race track that didn't make the cut?

As you can see it didn't really end up the way I wanted; as things went along some things just wouldn't work out.  You'll probably run into the same thing; relax, at least try to, and enjoy the process, if you can.

Once you have a rough draft start sketching the buildings first on paper and then on good, old card stock.  I found some great help on Google images.  Try typing in "school clip art" or "ship black and white," print it off and there is your fantastic pattern.  You could do a cave for dragons, or a scene from a favorite book of theirs, or even a sand castle (I thought of all this, of course, after I had already used every bit of space on his blanket.  Grrrrrrr.) If you need something pretty specific (the Willis Tower) type in "Willis Tower" and look at all the angles Google has and try your hand at sketching.  Get that ruler out ladies and gentlemen...It is your new best friend.
I have to admit that while I was working through this project I got asked many, many times what my scale was, and I had to say that I really didn't have one.  I know it sounds ridiculous, and it probably is, but I just eye-balled most of it. I knew Willis Tower needed to be the biggest so if the farm house was bigger than Willis Tower than it was too big.  Also, lay those card stock pieces on your base fabric so that you get a feel for the scale before you start cutting into any fabric. You can definitely do better than I did, let me know how it works out in the comments.

The Schoolhouse, Willis Tower, Fire station, and Hancock buildings next to their stencils.

My stencil for the roads is brown wrapping paper I got at IKEA a year ago. I rolled it out and cut three inch strips for the roads and 1.5 inch strips for the railroad.  It worked great!

Wrapping paper for road stencil.

Yippee, you have all of your stencils cut out of card stock, so now you need to move on to cutting out your fabric.  Get your building, fabric, and Heat-n-Bond ready.  IRON your fabric to your Heat-n-Bond FIRST.  I know you think it will save you money on the Heat-n-Bond to iron only the part you need for the building, but iron first, then cut out your building using your stencil.  SO MUCH EASIER!

Once you get each piece of the building cut out, set it with the rest of the pile and keep working until you get the buildings all set.  This will make it so much nicer to see on your base fabric. Don't iron anything until you have it all laid out.  If you don't you might find you made to adjacent buildings the same fabric or something just isn't working right.  

Once you get it all onto your Heat-n-Bond and set up exactly how you want it on your base fabric, pin away my friend.  I pinned everything down that you see in the picture above and then worked on one structure at a time.  Think through each structure BEFORE you sew.  For example:

The Pirate Ship and Lighthouse

In this corner we have--shore material, lake material, two light house materials, two ship materials, and six types of thread.  The shore HAS to be ironed down first, then the lake and hull of the ship can be ironed.  Before you can put on the sails however, you have to sew in the masts using the same stitch and thread you will use for the wooden part of the boat.  So I ironed, but didn't sew the shore and lake, but iron and appiqued in the hull and masts.  After the masts are in then you can iron on your sails.  I appliqued everything on with the appropriate threads.  AFTER the shoreline is ironed and sewn on THEN you can iron on your lighthouse and applique it on.  I appliqued the sails and lighthouse at the same time because both used black thread.  My sails sat ironed but not appliqued on for a week or two while I waited for the lighthouse to be completed.  The name of the ship I had embroidered just before I bound the blanket.

YOUR DOING GREAT!  I ironed on all of my buildings and then worked on applique for each one so I could easily move to the next building with the same thread if it was possible.  This will take a boat load of time, but it is worth it in the end.  See you on the next post for the rest of the information.

So Where Have I Been?

Obviously the craziness just hasn't stopped for us, but I thought that it has just been too long since I have put something into the universe.  We have had some exciting days...L asked C, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" C answered, "Hmmmm, fighting dragons."  L, "You can't fight dragons, C; they are extinct."  C, "No, I fighting dragons."
We celebrated Q's first birthday with lots of stripes and my husband's birthday the next day with a lot of chocolate.  Hubby and I went for a short weekend away. <thank you grandparents and aunt for taking the kids>  It was wonderful!  We didn't do a dang thing and we slept in that morning.  FANTASTIC!  Who would have thought that a warm bath (or two), nice bed, and a wonderful hubby time could be so rejuvenating?  It was so wonderful.
Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon, but for now just know that we are well and busy, busy, busy.

Welcome to Thanksgiving

Who would have thought that when I went to bed and woke up one morning it would be NOVEMBER.  So begins the endurance race of the holiday season.  So far I have already had crankiness creeping over the ranks and snow is predicted for tonight.  Oh the joys! 

Now, I know it is a little late to tell all of you, but the first of November came and the children were treated with a lecture <that's right, part of being a mother from my family I guess>.  

Halloween is now over.  You may continue to gorge yourselves 

on the candy you worked so hard collecting, but today starts a 

new month.  November is here and with it comes Thanksgiving.  

What does that word mean?  Thanks---giving.  That's right kids; we 

give thanks this month.  If you aren't being thankful for something, then 

you don't need to say it.  Just so all of you know, Mom and Dad are 

done shopping for your Christmas.  If you find something you want on 

your lists, I will be happy to write it down and send it to your grandmas. 

We want to hear: "I am thankful for my food, clothes, school friends, 

family."  We don't want to hear: "I want, I need, Can I please have..."

So far, we have only had one problem with the greedy gimmies and that was this morning.  One whole week and a half of peace!  I am putting that in with the wins.  

Now I try not to be one of the moms that says one thing and does another, so I am thankful.  I am thankful for my family and all four of my spunky children, and yes all the noise they make as well. I am thankful for my mother who taught me how to love and my dad who taught me what a man is.  My heart pours over with gratitude for my husband for loving me and teaching me just how deep that love is.  Here's to the great month of Thanksgiving!

Birthday Party Prep

Who would have thought that a four-year birthday party would be so much work?  If you thought that a small gathering of friends was enough, you are sorely mistaken.  There are goodie bags, invites, decorations, creative moms trying to constantly one-up the other moms.  Who would have thought that involving my little one on her birthday party would have been a big mistake.  If I had just planned the whole thing without any "help" then I wouldn't have to try to do EVERYTHING she saw in every shop, website, or book.  Wow, you live, you learn, and you plan the party without input from the soon-to-be four-year-old.

Let the Spoiling Begin

So my Daily Dose hasn't been very daily.  In my defense I did say it was an experiment.  This weekend was a marathon.
When my mother came back from her whirlwind trip of Paris and Rome, she was supposed to leave the next day, but her flight was canceled.  Cue more spoiling time!  Movie night, shopping, and a special dinner for our July birthday girl.
She left the next day, but we had a friend come into town . He read to the kids at any sign of weakness.  He must have read every book in the library two or three times over.  Rookie mistake--never start reading a book without setting up exactly when the reading time will be over.
The next day my husband's biological grandparents (adoption is a common word in our home, so if this seems weird to you, it is common enough here) came to spoil them some more.  Gifts, dinner, late night, and yet again more movie and books. They live in New Mexico so we don't get to see them often enough for this to be obnoxious, but by now my kids have had three late nights and counting.
FOURTH OF JULY, I hope you all had a safe and happy fourth.  We allowed the older three to stay up and watch the firework display for the first time this year.  So today, you can imagine just how my day had the potential to be.  Surprisingly enough, no such thing happened.  My kids have been GOLD; they even took naps today without the usual fit fanfare.  Hot Dog!  My kids survived the spoiling and continue to live to tell the tales!