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How to Make an Adorable Nap Mat

Aishwarya Nirmal
A nap mat comes very handy when traveling to a different place or staying at someone else's house. You can easily make it yourself; all you need to know is choosing the correct materials and proper stitching.
Making personalized nap mats gives liberty to make it as per your specifications. It is an easy process, if the required material and right technique is used. It can be spread anywhere for sleeping, and can be folded and kept away after use like a sleeping bag.
A nap mat is a temporary and portable bed mattress. It can be designed and patterned in numerous ways, depending on who will use it and where it is to be used. These are mostly made for infants and children, since they might feel the need to sleep anytime and anywhere.

Child's nap mat

Material Required

Material should be purchased after a rough sketch of the pattern and size is ready. Basic requirements for a nap mat is fleece, padding material (old quilt), cover cloth, scissors, matching thread, sewing machine and plastic or waterproof material.

Making a Child's Nap Mat
● Cut two pieces of fleece of the same measurement.
● If you want the mat to be thicker, you can use an old quilt, an old yoga mat, or decide on a suitable padding material.
● Cut the padding material of the same size as that of fleece sheets. Carefully cut an inch or two on all sides of the material, so that after sewing the edges, the final size of the mat will match to what you had decided.

● Place the 2 fleece sheets with the printed sides facing each other. Place the padding material over it and pin-up all 3 pieces together.
● If the mat is for an infant, sew a plastic or any other waterproof material sheet between the padding and the fleece cloth pieces. Avoid placing the plastic material over the fleece material, as it will make the surface uncomfortable to sleep on.
● Sequence of materials in reverse order should be as follows: plastic sheet (if the floor is dirty or water-spilled or if its an infant's nap mat placed on the carpet/sofa, plastic sheet will prevent the mat from getting wet)―fleece cloth―padding material (conditional)―plastic sheet/any waterproof material (for a bed-wetting infant's nap mat)―fleece cloth.
● Now, use a sewing machine to sew up only three sides of the pinned materials together, leaving one short side unstitched.
● Turn the mat inside out from the unstitched side and hand-sew that side.
● If you want it to have an attached pillow, place a proper-fitting pillow inside the mat from the open end, and sew it exactly where the pillow ends, so that it is locked on one side (otherwise the pillow will slide down the length of the mat).

● Now, you can sew the open end of the mat securely.
● You can also attach a blanket to your mat. While sewing the materials (fleece, padding, and plastic sheets) together, you can place a thin blanket material above the topmost fleece sheet, and sew it along the length only on one side. Be very careful of not sewing along the blanket sheet while stitching the other three sides.

Making a Cover

● There are many ways of making a cover for your nap mat. You can either just roll the mat and tie it up with a string, or you can have a separate cover for it.
● To sew strings or ribbons to the mat, all you have to do is stitch the ribbons to the short end of the mat when you are sealing it at the very end. Either stitch press buttons at suitable places or then sew two ribbons at the same point of the short end, so that you can roll the mat and tie up the strings.
● To make a separate cover, take two pillowcases, and cut off the short sealed end of one of them, so that the case is open on both the opposite sides. Sew up one of its open end to the open end of the other pillowcase. It will look like a long sack.
● To improve it further, you can use neon post-ons, cloth flowers, fur toys, etc., for decoration. While making a child's nap mat, use mellow and light colors. By selecting the right pattern and knowing the basics of stitching, you can easily make your own long-lasting and comfortable nap mat.