A Big Girl Car Seat!

Our Little lady bug is growing up so fast!  She turns one this month and I think  know I might cry... how did a year go by sooo darn quickly??? 

Moving right along...   since my little one is getting bigger she is getting harder to carry her around in her infant car seat... like I am sure happens to all almost one year olds.  So, I decided that it was time to do the project that I had said I was going to do since last summer... make a new cover for this:



Yes, there really was nothing tooooooo terrible about the cover that was on the car seat.  I had washed it and put i back on, but it was faded and I just couldn't put my little girl in that.... even for just a car ride.  So the Little Ladybug and I took a trip to Joann's to pick out material.  I went with fleece for a few reasons.  Reason one I choose fleece was because it holds up well.  Reason two I choose fleece was because it does not fray.  The not fraying was very important because I didn't want to have to hem around the car seat strap openings... that would have been a P-A-I-N! 

Well, lets get started with this project...

Materials needed:

• Fleece
• Batting
• Elastic
• Scissors
• Pins
• Sewing machine
• Seam ripper
• Thread to match your fleece
• Sharpie marker

Step one...

• Label the back side of the old cover and take it apart.  I used a seam ripper but it was taking too long to rip it out one stitch after another therefore I started cutting a few stitches and then ripping. It went much faster this way and that made me very happy! :-)

• Your now ripped apart pieces become your pattern pieces.

Step 2

• Lay your pattern pieces out on your fleece.  Make sure you lay them out so that they are straight with the pattern of the fabric... if not when you put your cover together it will look all wonky!

• Cut out your pieces.  After cutting, make your slits and cut outs for the straps and buckle.  Then, take the pattern pieces off... make sure you label your pieces so you don't get them all mixed up.  To do so I just wrote what piece it was on a post-it and pinned it to the piece.

Step three

• Cut out your batting.  Cut your batting the same way you cut your main pieces... lay the pattern pieces on top and cut...

Step four

• Place your main seat piece (the biggest one in my case... the one that has the strap holes in it) on top of your batting for that same piece.  Sew around all of your openings for the straps and buckles.

Step five

• Pin your pieces together and sew.  This is a hard step to explain.... you basically have to watch how you take apart your old cover and sew it back together the same way.  I simply made a batting sandwich with mine.  I sandwiched my fleece pieces between my batting pieces and sewed them together... make sense?

Step six

• Once all of your pieces are sewn together you can move onto cutting out the edge piece that holds it around the car seat frame. 
• I cut off the old elastic so that I had one looooong piece of the old fabric.  I then laid that on top of my fleece and cut out my looooong piece.  I actually wound up having to cut two pieces and sew them together because I didn't have enough length on my material to cut one piece.

• I cut about 3/4 of an inch above my pattern piece so that I had enough to turn under to make my elastic casing.

Step seven

• Sew.  Sew your edge pieces together if you had to cut two like me.  If you didn't skip this step and continue to your elastic casing...

Step eight

• Elastic casing.  To make my elastic casing I folded my fleece down about a half an inch and pinned it.  Then I sewed it.  Don't forget to leave an opening to to put in your elastic.

Step nine

• The next step is to pin the edge piece to the seat piece.  After you have it pinned sew it all together. 

Step ten... you are almost there... keep going!!!

• Add your elastic.  The best way I have found to do this is the way my mom showed me when I was little... put a safety pin on the end of the elastic and thread it through your casing.  Once you get to the opening again sew your elastic ends together.  After sewing your ends together sew up your opening.

Step eleven

• Put the finished cover on the carseat and ADMIRE your handy work!!! :-)

The Little Ladybug sure does seem to like het new seat!

If you need anything clarified leave me a comment and I will try my best to do so!  Happy sewing... this project may look intimidating but you can do it! :-)

I will be linking to...