Dinosaur Rug as Nursery Decor

I made this rug out of super-snuggly cuddle fabrics. All I needed was the cuddle fabrics, some plain canvas, plenty of freezer paper, and some batting!

I started out by drawing the dinosaur I wanted. I know yesterday I said I’m no free-hand expert… and here you can see that I really am no expert… but I can get by when needed. I just drew this on the canvas with a soft lead pencil. Note: You’ll want to wash the canvas before starting to get all the shrink out. The canvas has shrink to it, the cuddle fabrics do not, so you want to get the shrink out.

 Then I ironed freezer paper on BOTH sides of the fabric. On the back for stability, and on the front for my pattern. I then traced the design onto the front freezer paper with a large permanent marker. I trimmed down the size of everything, to reduce the bulk of the canvas I had to drag under the sewing machine.

I pulled off the top freezer paper, and cut apart the pieces. Each piece was then ironed to the front of the corresponding cuddle fabric, and cut out.

I then covered the canvas with the batting, and put the cuddle fabric pieces back in place. I trimmed the excess batting. Later, I thought better of it and trimmed the batting a little less, because I wanted to make sure the batting got caught  in the stitching, since this guy won’t be getting quilted.

Here is the whole dino, ready for stitching!

Using coordinating threads, and a wide, close zig-zag stitch (called a “satin stitch”), I stitched everything down around the edges. Basically, it is like making a giant applique! Then, I cut away the excess batting and canvas right up against the stitching. As a final step, I did a SECOND satin stitch on top of the first all the way around, which gave it a serged look, and cleaned up the edges a little more.

It took the better part of a day… but the results are great! Love my dino rug!!