Welcome to the final tutorial for the Plastic Canvas Car Playset! Congrats on making it this far! This isn’t a hard creation, but it can be time consuming! But you’re almost there, read on to learn how to finish the playset so your little one can start playing!

DIY Car Play Mats

Now that the grass, roads and sides are completed, let’s move onto putting together the buildings. First, fill in the entire top of the building with yarn using the same steps we used on the main pieces and the sides. Do the same to the walls, using blue yarn for windows and another color for doors. I marked where I wanted those to be placed using a marker prior to filling in with the yarn. I didn’t do this in the pictures, but it is definitely easier to do it first. 

 

Next, attach the walls to the roof.  It is the same process as attaching the side panels to the main panels in the last tutorial.

 

Now that the roof is attached, connect the four walls together using the same stitching process as before.
 
To attach the building to the playset, start from the bottom of your main piece. Thread the yarn up through the bottom of the main piece and through the bottom square on one of your building wall pieces. Thread down through the main piece of canvas. Again thread up through the main piece of canvas, through the next bottom square on your building and down through the main piece. Continue until you’ve attached the whole building to the main piece of canvas, knotting the end, leaving a tail and tucking it under one of the rows of yarn. This process is a bit awkward and it may take you a minute or too to find a rhythm but it is simple enough.
 
If you want a door on a building to OPEN to allow a car inside, you need to do this step BEFORE attached the roof of the building. Choose which wall the door should be placed in. From the bottom of the wall, cut all the way to the second square from the top of the wall. Count over 8 squares and do the same. You’ve created a door flap. Cover the walls and roof in yarn, including the door flap. And move on to the steps of attaching the building together and to the main piece.
 
To add a pulley so that the door can be opened easily: Tie a knot in the yarn and leave a tail that is about an inch long. Thread the yarn through the fron of the door and all way through the back wall of the building. Make sure that the door is closed. Tie a know and leave a one inch tail. Pull the tail at the back wall and the door will open! Pull the tail at the door and it will close.
 

 

To create a car wash, create a building with two walls and a roof. Tie some yarn to the ceiling, letting it hang down to create water “spray”.

That’s all there is to it! I know it took a bit of time, but your kids are going to LOVE playing with this set. 

UPDATE: It is 6 years later and we STILL have this playset. It has gone camping with us, on overnight trips in hotels, to doctors offices and friends houses. It has been played with by countless hands, both girls and boys.  

Click each link to go to the previous tutorials in the series:

Car Playset Tutorial Part 1
 Car Playset Tutorial Part 2
Car Playset Tutorial Part 3