Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside (with remnants)

Nappy time mat

I’m combining a remnant project with this week’s photo challenge, the better to

“help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.”

see more Weekly Photo Challenge here.

Pinterest has troves of adorable nap mats for babies and toddlers, and I want to make one, or two, or more… But after looking at tutorials, I decided my project was best going to come about through eye-balling and sew-as-I-go shenanigans.

snuggly fabrics

Deciding to make a sewing project has everything to do with the fabric remnants I have on hand. I like to buy remnants of minky fabric whenever I see them in the bin, because Soft & Comfy minky is $14.99 per yard if not on sale for 1/2 price as a remnant. This red minky matched perfectly with the Yo-Gabba-Gabba cotton print. I had a remnant piece of quilt batting, which I used double thickness because I wanted a cushiony mat. I also had a 12″ x 16″ pillow form in the stash. I used a strip of red cotton flannel remnant to seal up the end of mat, like a large, fat, quilt binding.

flannel remnant

hook & loop velcro to fold as a bedroll

In a nutshell, this is how I made the nappy mat.
1) sewed pillow case out of minky to eye-balled dimensions of pillow by sewing one side seam, right sides together, and folding the edge of the other side under and hemming it
2) sewed folded cotton mat fabric to pillow (left side and bottom seams open)
3) sewed minky fabric for blanket onto top of cotton mat fabric at side seam, wrong side of mink to right side of mat fabric (right side of minky facing up, sitting on top of right side of cotton), then sewed fleece binding to raw edges of blanket
4) turned inside out and sewed side seams of mat fabric together, right side of bottom layer of cotton mat fabric to right side of minky with top layer of mat fabric sewed underneath minky
5) turned right-side out, then stuffed quilt batting, folded double, into tube of cotton mat fabric
6) quilted mat fabric layers together by sewing long vertical rows
7) cut a piece of red flannel remnant the dimensions of open bottom of mat; sewed edge to top layer of bottom edge of mat, turned under raw edge and sewed to bottom layer of bottom edge, through all thicknesses. Turned under raw edges and caught them in the seam.
8) sewed on two strips each of hook & loop velcro fastener tapes where the bottom edge of mat met the underside of the nap mat

I like the idea of bedding and toys coming together like this. It reminds me of the Robert Louis Stevenson poem “The Land of Counterpane.”