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Kids Car Carrier Tutorial

by 39 Comments

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.

Car Wallet

Kids Car Wallet

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?

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Comments

  1. Lindsey says

    It’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!!

    Reply

  2. Claudia says

    Aaah! 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

    Reply

  3. Kathy Kabelis says

    Hi. 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!

    Reply

  5. Marilyn Hargreaves says

    I 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.

    Reply

  7. Marilyn says

    I 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.

    Reply

  8. Leah says

    This 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.

    Reply

  9. Elaine Stull says

    Thank 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.

    Reply

  10. kara says

    I 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?

    Reply

  11. Stacy says

    I 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

    Reply

    • Amber says

      It’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.

      Reply

  12. Toby Tipton says

    My 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.

    Reply

  13. Jocelyn says

    What 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.

    Reply

  17. Beatrice says

    Hi, 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.

    Reply

  20. Laurie says

    Thanks so much for this pattern, Amber! I made two toy car totes – one for my grandson and one for his friend. Both of them turned 3 recently, and it seems like a perfect toy for them! I will post a photo on Instagram as soon as I buy the hot wheels cars to put in them. I’ll tag you in my photo. Cheers!

    Reply

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