Crafting Up a Magic Carpet Nap Mat

These Magic Carpet Nap Mats are so soft and fluffy you're going to want to scoot your loved ones over a bit so you all have a spot to snuggle! It's tough to decide which is best, it's softness or it's napping magic. Either way I'm on cloud nine...

This project was made with a variety of fabrics for both the front and back panels, I added little corner tassles, and then I stuffed it with a polyfil, tacking it down like a quilt. The process is pretty simple. You will want to start out with a center rectangular panel of fabric and then cut strips of fabric that are about 20" length by about 22" wider on each end than the length and width of the center rectangle panel.

Materials: lots and lots of different fabrics, 4 tassles for the corners, 1-1.5 large bags of your favorite polyfil stuffing, scissors, sewing machine, thread, sewing needle.

One of the most helpful things you can do with all strips of fabric for this project is to fold the fabric in half one way, and then fold the piece in half the other way and score it so you can easily find the center mark of all sides of each strip. Planning for the side strips to be a little longer ensures you have enough fabric to match the corners up in the end and if you are using a mixture of different fabrics, it always helps to have a little extra pinch. Just make sure each strip is long enough before sewing to the center panel.

Once you have made a little cut or fabric pen mark to all corners of your center rectangular panel, take a shorter strip and align the center marks, pin and sew. *Make sure you stop sewing about 1" inward from all corners when sewing your fabric side strips to the center panel. The more you sew the side strips to the center panel, the heavier your front panel will become. It will help to have a table or sewing space to your left to hold up the panel as you sew, however you may also want sewing pins for this project to you keep it all organized as you work. Repeat this sewing technique with all three other sides, again leaving about 1" unsewn at the corners.

Your next set of side strips will be sewn in the very same way, only assuming that they will be be an additional length of 44" overall (22" on each end for the corner fold) than you had assumed for the prior set of side strips added. Mark the top and bottom of the strips of fabric to indicate the center for each, and then align, pin and sew those strips. Continue with this until you are finished (or out of fabric and or exhausted already). Once you are finished with your top panel you will add the little tassles to the corners, tassles pointing inward at the corners before sewing them down.

Once you have gotten this far you will either want to make another panel for the backside just like you did for the front, or just go with one large fabric panel, but make sure the backside is the same size as the front panel. Place the bottom panel fabric facing up on your sewing space, and then lay your top panel on top of the bottom with the top panel fabric facing down. Pin all the way around from the lower left area of the blanket about 3 ft or so in from the corner and then all the way around the blanket, leaving about 2 ft open around the bottom hem. Sew the pinned sides down and then turn right side out.

Now you are going to stuff the inside with the polyfil. Lay the entire piece out flat and take the bag of filling and add a little bit, tack the area down with your thread and sewing needle, and repeat throughout the blanket. You now have napping perfection ;)

Happy Crafting!
Lindsay