Travel Placemat

 This is one of my new favorite baby gifts to make. The waterproof burp cloths are great, but if you don't have a spitter, you don't need it. A travel placemat with cutlery holder is a must-have for every parent. I used to buy the disposable placemats for Elsie to eat off of when we went out, but my aversion to anything disposable stopped me from buying them. I know you can purchase a rubber placemat at Target or Babies R Us, but I've never been a fan of those either. This placemat is washable, has a place for a baby spoon and fork and folds up neatly into the diaper bag.

This project is an adaptation from one I saw in the Babyville book. They just had it as a placemat, whereas I altered it a little to make it a travel placemat. Best thing about this project is that it was completed in under an hour! Enjoy!

Travel Placemat

Babyville PUL fabric- two pieces in coordinating patterns/colors 13"x19"

Applique for embellishing the placemat

1 1/4" elastic- 3" (babyville has really cute coordinating elastic, I just used white)

fleece, batting or felt- 13"x19"

Button

Coordinating thread

Stitch the applique onto the PUL fabric that will face up when unfolded.

Fold the two edges of the elastic under and stitch it to the same piece of PUL that you stitched the elastic to. stitch down the center, reinforcing the two ends. I stitched down the center twice.

Pin the batting or fleece to the wrong side of the PUL fabric you just used. Stitch a 1/4" seam around the edge.

Pin the second PUL fabric to the mat with the fleece with wrong sides of PUL fabric together. Stitch around the edges leaving a 2 inch opening.

Turn the project right side out. Fold under the fabric in the opening and top stitch all around the edge of the placemat.

Fold the mat into a tri-fold and determine where the button should go.  Sew a buttonhole on the top flap of the mat. Then sew the button to the bottom part of the mat.

Using an exacto knife, cut through the layers of the fabric in the button hole. Place a pin in the ends of the bottonhole to ensure the exacto knife doesn't rip through the stitches.

Place baby cutlery in the mat, fold and button shut.