Changing mat - made with oil cloth and machine bound.

I had this piece of oil cloth hanging around for a while; my mum bought the off cut for me while we were in John Lewis one day (a favourite haunt of mine and hers!).  I wasn't sure what I was going to make with it and then suddenly inspiration hit me - it was the perfect shape and size for a changing mat and I needed one to take out and about for little Alice. 

 This is the finished changing mat: (modeled by Alice!)

If I was going to make it again I think I would make it slightly smaller so that it easily fitted into my changing bag.  At this size its a handy clutch size to take out on its own for a short time; with some wipes and a nappy in the pocket.

Here's how I made it:

You will need:

• Oil cloth 52"x14" or 132cm x 36cm.
• wadding for the inside (26"x 14" or 66cm x36cm)  and pocket (approx 8.5"x14" or 22cm x36cm), I used scraps I had and sewed them together using a zigzag stitch. 
• coordinating cotton for the pocket/pillow and for the binding, a fat quarter should do it.
• sewing machine set up with coordinating thread
• scissors
• pins
• iron and ironing board set up

1. cut your oil cloth to size.

my off cut of oil cloth

My oil cloth was the right size already so I didn't cut it, but trimmed it a little.  If you are measuring and cutting your oil cloth I would mark it on the wrong side so that you don't end up with marks on your changing mat. It would probably be easier to cut with a rotary cutter, metal ruler and cutting mat, but sharp scissors will do!

2. Make your binding.

step a

I always use 2.5 inch (6.5cm) strips to make my binding.  I just measured and cut straight strips out of my cotton fabric, but you could make bias binding by cutting diagonally if you have enough fabric.  Making bias binding will make it more stretchy, but I found you didn't need it here.

To calculate the amount of binding you need for a project you:
Add the width and length measurements - 132cm + 36cm = 168.
Times by 2 - 168 x 2 = 336
Add 25cm - 336 + 25 = 361cm of binding.

This should give you enough to join the ends of the binding easily and a bit spare. (it' always good to have a bit extra!)




To join your stripes of binding together you do the following:

step b

a. fold each strip in half and iron so you have a crease.

b. put the ends of two strips right sides together and pin diagonally.

c. sew diagonally.

d. cut off the corner to a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

e. open up to see a continuous strip of binding!

step b and c

step d

step e

3. Fold the oil cloth in half so you have the basic shape and size you want for your changing mat.

 Put your wadding in side of the oil cloth.

I used up scraps of wadding I had left over by sewing them together with zigzag stitch.

4. Make your pocket.

I laid my doubled over cotton to to my oil cloth to judge the size of pocket I wanted.

Fold your cotton rectangle in half to make the size of your pocket. Cut the cotton to the same width as the oil cloth (14" or 36cm approx.)

I pinned the wadding inside the cotton for the  padded pocket/ pillow.

I layered my changing mat up, the oil cloth was folded in half with wadding inside, then the folded over cotton with wadding inside and pinned at one end.

I decided I wanted two pockets,  a larger one and a smaller one. So at this point I stitched a straight line from the bottom of the pocket to just over the edge of the cotton pocket, about two thirds over to the left.  I back-stitched a couple of times over the edge of the pocket to make sure it's strong.  You could just leave one big pocket.

5. Attaching your binding

I found it difficult to sew directly onto the oil cloth (I haven't worked with it enough to tell you if this is normal), so I didn't sew the oil cloth together first, I pinned the binding straight onto it and found it went through the machine much better with cotton on the top.

binding step 1 - start in the middle of the long edge and pin in place.

binding step 2 - when you reach the corner put your thumb under neath to create a mitered corner.

binding step 3 - to make lovely neat mitered corners, adjust and pin in place.

binding step 3 - once you've pinned all the way around, you need to allow an over lap off a couple of inches spare binding. (see picture below)

Binding step 5 - once you have sewn your binding all the way around, tuck the spare bit of binding underneath and pin.  Then sew this. 

Once the binding is attached all the way around the back, you can pull the binding to the front of the changing mat and pin.  You will need to wiggle the corners a bit to make them neat.  Try to pin evenly all the way around inline with the stitches (not vertical as I've been pinning before), try to pin evenly, looking at the other side to see that they sit an even distance from binding edge, as this will be where your line of stitching goes.  It is tricky to get this neat and takes practice!


This is just a very quick guide to binding, for a more detailed guide please go here.

You're finished!

Happy Changing!

Here are some recent pictures (selfies!) of me and the munchkins out and about! Enjoy!