Have you finished your holiday shopping? Did you make any gifts this year? This is a cute and simple gift idea for the holidays. And it’s easy, so it’s not too late to make it! It’s a kid’s car carrier. It holds 5 Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars and folds up easy so that it can be brought along when out and about.
Here it is folded up and ready to carry:
Here’s how to make it for your little car carrying kiddos.
Kids Car Carrier Tutorial:
Supplies:
About 1/2 yard of kid friendly fabric
Thread
Cars to go in it
First of all you are going to cut out 2 pieces of fabric that are 11 inches across and 14 inches long. I round out the corners a little.
You’ll also need to cut one piece that is about 8 inches by 20 inches. Fold the top of this last piece down to meet the bottom with right sides together and sew around it leaving a small opening to turn it right side out. Turn it right side out, press it flat and sew your opening closed. It should look like this now when you lay it on top of your 11 x 14 inch piece:
Grab 1 of your 11 x 14 inch pieces and lay your rectangular piece in the center of it (like shown above).
Pull the edge of your rectangular piece in and pin it along the edge of the 11 x 14 inch piece. Do this to the other side as well. Then pin the piece in across it evenly in 4 spots to form little pockets like this:
Sew a straight line in each of the spots where you just put a pin:
Next, you need to form little pleats at the bottom of these little pockets you just made. You are going to fold the bottom edges out so that they meet the next pocket over and lay smoothly along the bottom.
Then stitch a straight line across the bottom so that it looks like this when you are done:
Now, grab your other piece of 11 x 14 fabric and put right sides together and stitch all the way around leaving just a small opening (about 2-3 inches) at the top to turn it right side out.
Turn it right side out, press it nice and flat and then add a piece of velcro to the top on the inside of the carrier (the part that has the car pockets) and on the bottom on the backside (the side that does not have the pockets) so that they meet up like this:
What are YOU making this year?
Lindsey says
December 12, 2012 at 2:30 pmIt’s so funny that you just posted this, I had been looking for a tutorial on this exact gift a few weeks ago. I went ahead and ordered one due to lack of time, but now I have this for next time! THANK you SO much!!
Amber says
December 12, 2012 at 2:51 pmOh bummer that you couldn’t have gotten this sooner. Sorry!
Deb says
November 9, 2013 at 11:23 pmHi there, I’m not good at sewing. Can you buy this anywhere?
Amber says
November 12, 2013 at 7:37 pmI don’t sell them sorry!
Claudia says
December 15, 2012 at 3:33 amAaah! You don’t know it – but this is exactly what I am looking for! I need some kind of carrier for my grandson for all his cars and I was trying to find a solution. Now you have given me one. Thanks so much for sharing! Greetings from Germany
Amber says
December 15, 2012 at 1:02 pmHappy to hear it! :)
Kathy Kabelis says
January 4, 2013 at 10:47 pmHi. First I want to say that I LOVE this site! You have so many cool projects here! I really like this car carrier and I think I’m going to make one for my son, he’s 3. But i had an idea that I wanted to share. When I make his I’m going to cut strips of black felt and sew them near the edges all the way around, so he can have a track too :) Thank you for this tutorial!
Amber says
January 4, 2013 at 11:30 pmFun idea! Have you tried it?
Nat says
May 7, 2013 at 7:42 amI put a little bit of poly fill in it to make it not so flat! works great! Thank you
Marilyn Hargreaves says
May 30, 2013 at 9:46 pmNat did you put the poly fill in the outside part? Love that idea.
Marilyn Hargreaves says
May 30, 2013 at 9:45 pmI have just cut the pieces out to make this car carrier.
Nat, where did you put the poly fill? In the outside part?
I was thinking of using a little piece of cotton quilt batting.
Thanks.
Amber says
May 30, 2013 at 9:56 pmI would recommend fusible fleece interfacing.
Katie says
November 11, 2013 at 2:32 amThank you, thank you, thank you for this amazing tutorial. I loved sewing it up, if you get a chance you can see it here: http://am-i-a-dreamer.blogspot.nl/2013/11/kids-car-carrier.html .
Thanks again,
Katie B x
Amber says
November 12, 2013 at 7:36 pmOhhhh nice job and nice pics!!!!
ride on car says
April 16, 2019 at 9:15 amIT IS REALLY GOOD.
Marilyn says
November 12, 2013 at 8:07 pmI have made two of these but modified them to four pockets instead of the five.
My two year old grandson is a huge fan of Thomas the Train, and he loads this carrier up and takes it everywhere he goes.
Great for taking to restaurants. Keeps him busy and no issues carrying loose trains.
Leah says
November 19, 2013 at 7:49 pmThis was an excellent tutorial! Even easier to follow than I expected as a beginner sewer. I added a long piece of black felt to the lower flap to make a fold-out road. It was a huge hit, and now I’m making four more for gifts.
Elaine Stull says
December 1, 2013 at 1:53 pmThank you for the great idea and instructions! I just made a carrier for my grandson and one for my granddaughter. I used the fusible fleece interfacing and it worked very well. I know they will be used and loved.
Amber says
December 4, 2013 at 5:42 pmOh good! I hope they love them!
kara says
December 17, 2013 at 3:29 pmI have closely followed these directions, but making the pocket pleats isn’t working. The corners of my pockets don’t simply meet, they overlap. There is no way that much material is going through my machine. What gives?
Amber says
December 18, 2013 at 1:26 pmI’m not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean at the top or the bottom of the pleats?
Stacy says
April 23, 2014 at 9:01 amI have a question about the right and left side pleats.
I figured out how to make the pleats but I realized that when I sew the top and bottom pieces together the right and left sides of the piece that holds the cars would have the pleats disappear when I sew a 1/4″ seam allowance. When I turn it right side out, those pleats on each side are then gone. What have I done wrong or how should I have done it?
Thanks,
Stacy
Amber says
April 26, 2014 at 3:17 pmIt’s been a while since I made this but I think you should be able to sort of tuck the pleats in a little bit so they don’t get caught.
Toby Tipton says
June 30, 2014 at 6:01 pmMy house cleaner and wanted to make one of these for her son, so when she told me I said I would like to make one for each of my Great-Grandson’s. I sew quite a bit and she doesn’t so much anymore so I told her I would get a pattern and we could make it together. Can’t wait to start.
Jocelyn says
July 15, 2014 at 12:44 amWhat a fun project! I’ve been wanting a sewing pattern to make for the little cars. Since I already have all the materials, just finding the time is always a challenge. These make great gifts for the little boys who can learn organization at an early age. Well, at least we could try. Lol! Thanks for sharing.
Jocelyn says
August 6, 2014 at 1:56 pmThank you, Amber, I recently completed my car carrier. It came out so cute! I did struggle a little with the pleated pockets, but it turned out okay. I am very pleased with the end results:
Here’s the link to see my creation:
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/7b/3b/ae/7b3baeae97f0cbd6af3490770f83560d.jpg
Amber says
August 11, 2014 at 7:38 amOh you did amazing!!!! I love that!
Rachel says
March 2, 2015 at 6:51 amThank you for this tutorial, I loved making this up. I made a few additions too, you can see my version here https://merrilysews.wordpress.com
Tania Stays Positive says
August 30, 2015 at 2:04 pmAmber, allow me to say that this is really a great tutorial! In my environment everybody seems to have little boys, so this already has been a great gift for many times.
Amber says
August 31, 2015 at 9:02 pmThanks!
Beatrice says
October 15, 2015 at 5:18 amHi, Amber – just wanted to say thank you for the great tutorial. I’m making a traveling car mat for our young grandson, and this made the perfect “garage” to go with it. I added fusible fleece to the wrong side of the outside fabric of the car carrier and to the strip that holds the cars to give it a little more stability for a young child to handle. That worked well.
Thanks again for your tutorial. It was so much fun to make, and is a quick finish.
Amber says
October 31, 2015 at 12:35 pmOh fun!!!
Norma hernandez says
May 28, 2016 at 8:01 amThank you Amber very much, I have embroidered a race track and my grandsons name on his mat. I needed the pockets to hold the cars. Your tutorial was perfect. Details will be posted in a few days once I give it to him at link https://m.facebook.com/my.joyouZCreationZ/
Kelly Kate says
February 27, 2019 at 1:02 pmI really like reading your article and wish you the best for more amazing work. Thanks for sharing.
Amber says
February 28, 2019 at 9:19 amThank you!