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August 27, 2018 By Brandy 6 Comments

Home » Craft Tutorials

Race Track Play Mat (Double Sided!)

Filed Under: Craft Tutorials, Sewing

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks! This post is sponsored by Mattel. All opinions are my own. This post contains an affiliate link.

If you like this fun sewing project you will love our dinosaur pillow case, Sesame Street bean bags or kids baking apron!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Dallin and Aaron were around Mac’s age when the first Cars movie came out and they were both big Lightning McQueen and Mater fans; Aaron even had a Lightning McQueen birthday party when he was two. It was one of the first movies that we saw together as a family in the theater, and we all loved it!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Fast forward a few years. Cars 2 had just been released and we had two more children in our family. This time —two girls!  And you know what? Our girls were fans too! I love how the Disney Pixar movies are written for the entire family.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

When Cars 3 came out last year we had, once again, added another child to our family. Just one this time, ha! We couldn’t wait to watch our favorite friends from Radiator Springs light up the screen again, and it did not disappoint.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

I thought it would be fun to make Mac a race track play mat! Even though I made it with him in mind, it has been played with just as much by his sisters, too!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

This race track play mat was a lot of fun to create and the kids were right there every step of the way, adding their input. Mac is very particular about the placement of the cars in the “stands”. He even pretends to count them as he places each one in its parking spot. It’s fun to watch him push them around the track and his sound effects are pretty spot-on, too.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Do you have any Cars fans in your home? If so, I created this tutorial with them in mind! Since every family’s toy collection is a bit different you may want to size up or down on the track or other aspects. I used scrap paper to make pattern pieces. Once I liked how they looked I used the paper pattern pieces to cut out my felt. Use mine as your guide and get creative to create your own!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

This race track play mat has two sids: one side has a stadium track, and the other side has a dirt track like Radiator Springs.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

The roads and race track lanes are all 2-3″ wide, just the right size for both the mini cars as well as the standard die cast cars. I even made two parking spots for Mac and Wally.

For 60 more sewing projects, check out my sewing book for kids!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Double Sided Race Track Play Mat

Sewing level: Beginner

Time: 2-3 hours

Supplies:

2 (32″ squares of fabric*)

2 (31″ squares of thin cotton quilt batting)

basting spray**

measuring tape

variety of felt

2″ wide black and white checkered ribbon

embroidery thread

needle

scissors

pins

sewing machine

sewing thread in a variety of colors

A few notes before starting:

*You can absolutely make this play mat 100% out of felt. Felt is super easy to work with and you don’t have to finish the edges! You can also use fabric glue instead of sewing. I like using a combination of cotton fabric and felt because felt will pill over time and doesn’t last as long as cotton. I also prefer sewing vs. fabric glue for durability. Either way, you’ll end up with a darling play mat! If using cotton, be sure to add a bit of stabilization by fusing quilt batting to it with basting spray OR using fusible fleece interfacing.

**Basting spray is not to be confused with craft spray adhesive. Basting spray is found in the quilting section of the craft/fabric store. Spray it onto your fabric and adhere the batting to it. You can sew through it and it won’t gum up the sewing needle.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Preparation: 

Decide the layout you’d like for your mat. Here is a quick diagram of the one that I made.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Adhere your quilt batting to the back of both 32″ cotton pieces with basting spray.

Sewing on the Details: 

Stadium Track:

Use paper to create a pattern piece for the track. Fold the paper track piece in quarters and cut out a hole in the center. Open the folds. Cut out a track from grey felt and a green rectangle of felt for the grass. The grass rectangle should be 1″ larger than the center of the track. Place the green rectangle onto the main fabric piece then lay the track on top. Pin into place and sew around the outer and inner edge of the track.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

To add the starting line ribbon, measure the width of the track and add an inch. Use this measurement to cut a length of ribbon. Fold the ends of the ribbon over and pin into place. Sew around all four sides of the ribbon.

Hand stitch the track lanes using embroidery thread.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

For the stadium, cut a large shape from black felt using a paper pattern piece. Then cut the paper pattern piece into smaller sections, trimming 1/8″-1/4″ off of the perimeter of each piece and use those sections to cut white and red felt pieces. Sew the red and white felt pieces to the black section. THEN sew the entire stadium piece onto the 32″ square of cotton.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

Sew two rectangles below the track for the semi truck parking. Add two stop lights if you’d like!

Dirt Track:

Use scrap paper to create a pattern piece fo the dirt track (I made mine in two sections). Use the pattern pieces to cut out brown felt. Pin into place and sew.

Repeat for the black road strip.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

I used polka dot felt for the cacti. I love how it gives it the look of having poky spines. Here is a printable template to use for each cactus. Cut out as many as you’d like, pin into place, and sew.

Hand stitch the road lanes using yellow or white embroidery thread.

Finishing Up:

With right sides facing each other, pin the front mat piece to the back mat piece. Leave a 6-8″ opening to turn it right side out. Sew around the perimeter using a 3/8″ seam allowance.

Clip the corners on a diagonal. Turn right side out. Fold the edges of the opening closed and add a few pins to keep everything in place.

Top stitch around the entire edge.

Make a race track play mat to inspire creative play in your home! This double sided mat is soft to sit on and folds up for easy storage. The perfect place to play with your favorite cars and trucks!

“OK… Here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One winner. 42 losers. I eat losers for breakfast…I’m faster than fast. Quicker than quick. I am Lightning!” —Lightning McQueen.

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About Brandy

Welcome! I'm Brandy, mother to 5 darling kiddos and a cute black lab named Toby. My husband is in the Coast Guard so we've lived all over the place, turning each house into a home. I love baking, sewing, making cute things with my kids, and sharing what I've learned with all of you!

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Comments

  1. Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled says

    August 27, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    Very cute! My sons would love these car mats. Visiting from Tutorials and Tips.

    Reply
  2. Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather says

    August 28, 2018 at 10:34 am

    Oh my gosh, we love Cars! I had no idea they had all these little toy versions of the characters. I am almost afraid to show my guys, because I know they would want them all. Love that mat you created, how cool!

    Reply
  3. be says

    August 31, 2018 at 6:26 am

    enjoying your posts

    Reply
  4. Theresa Huse says

    September 1, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    This is so adorable. I know a few kids who would love one. I love how your play mat turned out. Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party @DearCreatives. Pinned and sharing.

    Reply
  5. T'onna | Sew Crafty Crochet says

    September 9, 2018 at 5:51 pm

    I absolutely love this playmat! I love the race track and the cacti! Too cute! I love this so much I chose it as one of my features at this week’s Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Party! ?

    Reply
  6. Erlene says

    September 15, 2018 at 6:17 pm

    My boys would have loved this! So fun to be able to customize and make your own race track mat.

    Reply

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About the Author

Welcome! I'm Brandy, mother to 5 darling kiddos and a cute black lab named Toby. My husband is in the Coast Guard so we've lived all over the place, turning each house into a home. I love baking, sewing, making cute things with my kids, and sharing what I've learned with all of you! Learn More About The Author

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