Car Cozie Tutorial (a.k.a. Car Cozy)

It's the post many of you have been waiting for :) I had to work out lots of things w/ this and so thanks for your patience. AS ALWAYS- this is for personal use only☻ which means no selling/redistribution, entering contests, etc. (In case you are wondering- I spelled it cozie instead of cozy...just trying to be original-since I have not seen this anywhere-and I have looked ☻) I am selling some in my etsy shop, if you would rather buy one. (more items coming soon) AND...I will sell you a kit too-with everything cut and ready to go. With this post, I am also doing a little give-a-way! Details at the end of post ☻

Let's Get Started:

Here is what you need :
ALL SEAM ALLOWANCES ARE 1/4 inch.

Step one: prepare the road piece

1. Iron the interfacing onto the back (wrong side) of the black fabric. I used flannel, or  you could cotton quilting fabric for the road. You could also use felt, but I really liked the flannel and cotton look and feel. Felt doesn't seem to wash as well, if you plan on washing this.

2. Next cut your 10 inch strip of yellow felt into 4 equal pieces. Cut your Wonder Under to match these pieces. Space evenly on the black fabric- the right side-(not the interfacing side) down the middle of the fabric. TIP: To get your pieces on evenly and easily, iron your road piece in 1/2 lengthwise to make a crease. Place the road lines right on the crease and they will be in the middle of the road now. ☻

With Wonder Under you don't have to sew. You can iron it in between the road and the yellow fabric, and it will fuse the two fabrics together. You can sew around the yellow lines too, if you want to reinforce them. Either way- your choice- but the Wonder Under really does keep it on.

Once your road is finished, set it aside for now.



Step Two: Prepare the pocket piece

(sorry different fabric here:))

1. The car piece that is 18 1/2 inches by 9 inches will be your pocket. Fold it in 1/2 and iron. Your pocket front will now be double thickness with the fold at the top of the pocket.

2. Place this piece with your contrasting fabric, lining up the raw edges. (The road will be sewn on the opposite edge of this contrasting fabric piece. )

3. Mark and pin the pocket piece every 3 inches, leaving an extra 1/4 inch on both ends of the pocket piece for seam allowances. So you will have 3 and 1/4 inches on the two ends, and all the pins in between will be every 3 inches. If it isn't exact, don't worry about it. It will still work and still fit cars- even if one pocket is a little too small or too big.

4. Once you have that all pinned, you are ready to sew the pocket on. This is important: When sewing the pockets, make sure to over stitch onto the backing piece, and to double stitch. So stitch the lines, making sure to back stitch on both ends, and then go back over and stitch the lines again. This reinforces the pockets since little cars and hands will be going in and out of the pockets often...☻

Put your pocket piece aside. Pick up your road piece.

NEXT- Attach ribbon closure.

The ribbon attaches right where the lines in the road are at. So fold your ribbon in 1/2 and sew it and back stitch it right on the edge of the road so that it is even with the yellow road lines.

NOW we are going to attach our road to our pocket piece.
With right sides together, sew the long side of the pocket piece to the long edge of the road piece.

You are almost finished!

Now let's attach the backing:

1. Placing right sides together, place the large car piece (18 1/2 inches by 12) on top of the pocket and road piece you just sewed. Pin all edges together. Sew 1/4 inch all the way around, leaving 3-4 inches open along the long edge of the road side. Make sure to catch all layers, but make sure you don't catch the end of the ribbon in your seams. Make sure you catch the end of the ribbon you already sewed on inside of your seam.

Trim your seams. Turn right side out. Press. Now you are ready to top stitch. When top stitching, sew opening closed. Top stitch all the way around the edge of the road, close to the edge, and outside edge of the pocket. I top stitched along the top edge of the pocket backing too, so that on the backing, there are two lines down the center, and stitching all the way around the edge.

AND now you are done!

Please let me know if this makes sense or if you have any questions. I had my husband help me with this, and he really wanted me to be specific, so I hope I was. ☻

Fill it up with cars, and enjoy your new toy!!

If you make one of these, will you please leave me a comment and link it to this post? thanks! I would love to see yours!

Leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll comment back to you with the answer.

AND NOW FOR A LITTLE GIVE-A -WAY!!

In my etsy shop, I am selling already made ones, and kits. With this post, I am giving away a kit that includes all the pieces you need to make your own. I am also giving one away made.

♥ ☻♥ ☻ ♥ ☻ ♥

Leave me a comment if you want to enter! And we'll have the give-a-way end Thursday of this week.

***THIS GIVE-A-WAY is now CLOSED***

Here is what you can do if you would like some EXTRA ENTRIES:

(make sure to tell me in your comment what you did for extra entries)

*Followers- 5 extra

*Add Little Gems Button to your blog-5 extra... on the left-I'm still working on the code but there is a button you can add for now (it may need some fixin' up --later ;))

*visit my etsy shop and add me to your favorites-5 extra

*Purchase from my etsy shop-10 extra- (more items coming to shop soon)