Travel sewing

Last night, I decided to take a little break from the fox quilts to mark a few small projects off my list. Next week, we're embarking on a lengthy road trip to see a whole lot of family, so I wanted to make up a few play/travel items for B before we hit the road. Presenting his new crayon wallet and car travel case:

The crayon wallet is super cute and will come in so handy because he can easily access the crayons (and not rely on us to get them out of the little box). I used this great little tutorial from Modest Maven, and the pocket she makes for paper slips also holds the little coloring books I stock up on whenever we're at Cracker Barrel (road trips only). They're the perfect size for traveling. It also holds 12 standard-size crayons.

Of course, I couldn't resist using a little fox fabric from the stash. The fox fabric is Woodland Picnic from Timeless Treasures. I bought it a few years ago, but it looks like you can still find it on Etsy. The blue stripe is a mystery fabric from my stash.

For the little car travel pouch, I started with this tutorial from Sisters, What! but made several changes, mostly to the size. I only wanted to include pockets on one side to leave more space for the play mat, but having just three car pockets didn't seem sufficient, so I used the following measurements to allow for five pockets:
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" outside fabric (I used Cruiser Blvd by Riley Blake.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" coordinating inside fabric (I also used Cruiser Blvd by Riley Blake.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 8" coordinating fabric for the car pockets (I used the red Bike Path print by Alison Glass, which is apparently impossible to find now.)
* Cut 1 - 15.5" x 18" fusible medium-weight interfacing (She uses sew-in interfacing in the tutorial, but I prefer fusible. Just attach it to your outside fabric before starting.)

Follow the instructions in the tutorial except you'll only have one pocket to attach. Mark the crease lines for your pockets 3" apart, starting 1/4" in from one side (You'll be left with 1/4" of seam allowance on the other end.).

The one other modification I made involved the Velcro closure. Because of the size of my pockets (smaller than in the original tutorial) and the fact that I had five instead of three, I originally cut my Velcro into two 2" pieces, which I centered on pockets two and four. However, when I went to attach the outside Velcro pieces (after finishing the rest of the carrier), I realized it wasn't going to roll up (and hold) very well. Instead, if you're going to do my modification, ignore the Velcro altogether. When you've finished the pouch, roll it up lengthwise starting with the car-pocket end (see photo above). Once it's rolled up, fold it in half, and install a snap in the upper corner, opposite the fold (see the top photo of the carrier above). This works great and also makes the carrier more compact and easier to carry. If you don't have a snap setter (I use this one, and it's wonderful.), you could probably use Velcro here, but it won't be as strong.

Finally, if you don't have a fabric print with streets on it (like mine), you could make your own road using felt, like in this tutorial or this one. Now, we're ready for the open road!