Easy Fabric Roads

By Jen Brown of Lil' Mop Top

John John loves playing with his cars, trucks, and trains. It is so interesting how he just gravitates toward them even though he has tons of other toys to play with! So I made a set of these fabric roads from old jeans in my cloth stash. I liked the idea of fabric roads because John wouldn’t have to snap pieces together as he would have to with a “real” set of roads or railroad tracks, they are pretty easy to store compared to having a huge box of bulky pieces, and they are portable—we can take one or two pieces with us if we need to entertain him somewhere like a restaurant or at a doctor’s office.

Materials:

old jeans or denim scraps—I used old jeans that my dad and husband used to wear

yellow paint
scissors
paintbrush (or your finger)

Instructions

Cut up your denim into long strips. I cut mine into pieces that measured approximately 6 inches wide.
If you choose, you can hem the edges with a zigzag stitch or use Fray Check to help keep the fraying at a minimum. So far this hasn't been a problem with ours.
Using a paintbrush (or your finger), paint small yellow dashes down the denim to make the stripes in the middle of the streets.
Once the paint is dry, cut your denim into however many pieces/shapes you desire. With one pair of jeans I was able to make two long roads, two shorter roads, two curved roads, and a four-way intersection piece.
If you’d like to make a little bag to store the all of the pieces neatly, look no further! You already have a nice pocket ready to be used!

Have fun—and remember to look both ways!

Jen Brown is a mother of two toddler boys and a former secondary math teacher. Jen's passion for teaching continues now that she is a stay-at-home mom. She strives to find fun activities to add learning and exploration into her sons' daily lives. Stop by her blog, lil Mop Top, where Jen documents her adventures in toddler activities, crafts, parties, and baby showers.

opertionexcel

This is great. You can purchase old jeans from the thrift store and maybe find cars and trucks there too. If not I seen those match box cars for $1 each. You could store the fabric and cars in an empty clean icecream bucket. Now you have a playset! Now that you have inspired me, I think I will do that for my 4 year old.