Sewing for Kindergarten - How to Make a Nap Mat

I have been looking forward to Mie's fabulous series on Sewing for Kindergarten! I am honored to be part of the series and had SO much fun sewing for my baby girl as she got ready for her first year of school. For more inspiration be sure to follow Mie's blog, Sewing Like Mad. Mie is also competing on Project Run & Play...you won't want to miss voting for her amazing look this week!

I created FOUR different things and posted tutorials for a couple of them last week. (Adding a Pocket to a Book Bag, and a Girly Paint Shirt with tutorial on how to make round pockets) Tomorrow I will post about the fun school uniform-approved pants I made, but today is all about my girl's favorite of the items I made for her.

My little kindergartner, Emerald, loves her new pants, book bag and paint shirt...but she really loves her nap mat!

Emma is a girl who loves anything pink, but her school has uniforms and sadly, pink is not one of the approved colors! But even though she can't wear frilly pink dresses and skirts, she can have a pink, super-girly nap mat to use for rest time each day.

And the best part about this nap mat is how easy it was to make! Want to make one too? Here's how to do it:

The only materials you will need are a beach towel (to act as a template for the size of your mat), your sewing machine, and two different fabrics. One side will also act as the 'binding' so you'll want the fabrics to coordinate somewhat. I used two really soft fluffy fabrics in solid pink and assorted color hearts.

Note: for this tutorial I am calling the fabric with hearts the 'contrast fabric.'

The first thing you need to do is cut your fabric to the size you want your nap mat to be. You can use a beach towel as a template to cut your fabric into the size you want. I used a beach towel to cut my contrast side, and then cut the solid colored side about 1.5 inches bigger all the way around. (this is for the binding)

Place your fabrics with wrong sides together on a large surface. The larger piece should be on the bottom and the contrast fabric centered over it.

Starting at one side, fold the long edge in 1/2 inch and then fold it up and over the edge of your contrast fabric so the raw edge of the contrast fabric is completely enclosed. Pin the binding down all the way around to hold it in place.

Then sew along the edge of the binding all the way around.

It couldn't be easier! You're done!

If you make a nap mat I'd love to see it! Hope your little one enjoys rest time even more knowing you made a personal little mat just for them!