Here is the post that Tammy from She Wears Flowers linked up for her "audition". I thought for her first week posting here I would post this amazing tutorial. Enjoy!!!
My girls play a car game that I both love and hate. It's called "Yellow Car" and the object is to spot and count the yellow cars that you see while driving from one place to another.
We have had various scream fests discussions about whether or not certain vehicles count and if you can really count the yellow truck on our street that is ALWAYS parked in the same spot or other really-don't-matter details. In the end, the winner is the person who has the most yellow cars when we reach our destination.
This game is an easy way to distract children from those days when you run several errands and have to be in and out of the car a lot. My two-year-old loves this game, but always loses count of how many cars she has called. She usually just sticks with the number two.
I thought I would make the game a little more tactile and educational for the little people who like to play. And, it just may help my older girls to stop cheating forgetting what number they were on!
A note--you can use felt, fabric, or foam for these cars, but I wanted them to be chunky so a young child with developing fine motor skills could actually grasp them and slide them along the ribbon. You can, obviously, tailor this to meet your needs.
Putting it all together...
(This is upside down because I sewed the left-hand side first.)
Sew down the right side of the ribbon. I just stretched it taut and eye-balled it to make it level, but you can mark it if you prefer. On this side, you only need to sew it down once because the number part will sew over it again and again to help hold it securely.
Iron the small ellipses to the game board at the end of the ribbon. Be sure to leave a space a little more than ½ inch from the edge for your seam.
Applique using a satin stitch or zigzag stitch around the small ellipses to help hold them securely. This isn't exactly my area of expertise, but it worked out okay--go slowly. Then, iron on the felt numbers in the center of the ellipses. Use a straight stitch to secure these to the ellipses. I just stitched in the middle of each number.
Put rights sides together and sew around three sides. The side you do not sew will be the top of the game board or the short edge that does not have the Velcro attached to it. Trim your corners. You should also trim your seam allowance to ¼ inch after checking to make sure you have sewn it properly. I forgot to trim mine and it was fine--just a little thick.
Turn your game board right side out. Do this very slowly and carefully since it will be very stiff and it is kind of lumpy and awkward with all of those cars. Be careful you do not bend your cars or they will break! Once it is turned it will sit funny because of that stiff interfacing. Just iron the edges flat being careful not to get near the cars.
Fold the top edge in ½ inch and iron to hold it in place. Slide your flap in place being sure that it is inserted far enough to catch it completely when you sew (about ¼ inch). The side with the Velcro should be on the same side as the cars. Sew along the edge to secure it using a ¼ inch seam. Topstitch along the other sides in the same manner.
Sew a straight line across your game board in between the 3rd and 4th rows. You can measure to be sure it is centered. It should be 6 inches from the top and bottom. This will help your game fold over more easily.
Your game should fold over and can be held together with the Velcro. My flap is a little small (I corrected this for the pattern you are downloading) and I decided I should have added a small handle, but it works!
Tammy is amazing! She has such cute ideas--I have a nephew who would love this one in particular.
This rocks! We are about to take a long road trip and this would be PERFECT for a distraction for the kids! Thank you!
I guess I am a little bit slow on the uptake. Does each child get a gameboard to keep track of their yellow cars? Or is it one for the whole car? Cute idea. Thanks!
This is "sew" flippin' cute :) I definitely must follow your blog! :)
We play the yellow car game too! And many of the same arguments -- LOL! I wish I could sew, I would make this, it's so cute, but everyone knows not to trust me with needles :-)
I'm a new follower also.
VERY cute way to keep up with the score. How
We play the same game but a little tweaked. We call it "Cows & Horses" because I grew up in the country and you got points for each herd of cattle you saw, but if you saw a horse, you could call "Horse!" and erase the other players' cows.
So now that we live in the 'burbs, yellow cars are "cows" and taxis are "horses". :)
I love this version of "slug bugs." (Have you every heard of counting VW Beetles?) Anyway that's the game my boys play, without the "slugging." For the record, the neighbors Beetle that never moves doesn't count for us. There was way too much bickering about it, especially right when they got in the car. I love that you developed a way to keep track. I bet there's a lot less arguing now!
I made it! You can see mine here. Thanks so much for the great idea and I can't wait to see more from Tammy!
WOW!! I love this!