Dear Princess,
Your chariot awaits.
Love,
Mom
I bought a car seat cover pattern on
etsy. I'm deliberately not linking to the pattern because, quite frankly, the pattern was horrible. The listing mentioned that it was a one-size-fits-most type deal with only the strap marking being specific to my brand of car seat. But I tell ya, I had to alter the car seat cover so much that it would have been easier to take apart my old car seat cover and use it as a pattern. (I didn't do that because I was afraid that if I botched the project, I wouldn't have
any cover for the car seat.) Anyway, I'll chalk this up to a life lesson learned. I'm happy with the final result and that's what matters.
The center portion of the cover is a visibly soft rosette minky. The patterned fabric on the sides is Peacock Feathers in Sea Glass, from the Amy Butler Soul Blossoms collection. If you look closely, you can also see that I made strap covers out of the pink minky fabric.
I made a coordinating canopy (tent?) to let my little girl sleep in peace. I love the addition of the large pink ric rac around the edges. The buttons on the handle are decorative. Cute, eh? The straps are actually attached with velcro.
I didn't follow one particular pattern when I made this. Here are three free tutorials that I skimmed to get the general idea:
here,
here, and
here.
Another shot showing the rounded corners (still love the ric rac!). I also rounded the straps to match.
Here's the car seat clipped into the stroller. The reason I bought this particular Amy Butler fabric was because it was the ONLY fabric I could find that incorporated the same green and aqua used on stroller. Thank you, Amy Butler.
Another shot of the car seat clipped into the stroller, this time without the big canopy. You can see how the Amy Butler fabric ties in with the stroller.
Brighton wanted me to take his picture. I was more than happy to oblige. :)
Baby beware, this boy practiced driving your stroller all over our corner of the neighborhood.
If Brighton keeps driving like he did today, this girl's gonna be in for a WILD ride!
This is amazing! And congratulations!!
ReplyDeleteLove your fabric choice, and I agree that the ric rac really makes it. Great job!
ReplyDeleteAdorable! And, speaking from experience, any little girl that has brothers (I had 3, no sisters:) is in for a ride! Perfect choice in fabric matching the stroller.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until you see the ties Justin and Whitman are wearing this Sunday. Just wait.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can't believe this can be done. I've never like my car seat fabric options and it's never occurred to me that it's changeable.
It looks awesome! And I love minky for cuddling. I just made a car seat "tent" as well...but I didn't even think about rounding the edges and wish I had. The buttons on the straps are adorable. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteHi! Love your carseat! Im making a cover right now but I dont have a pattern for the awning part. Did you use a pattern or just go off of the one that came on your carseat?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Juliette
The pattern I bought included the awning. It's a bit bigger than the awning that came with the car seat, but a close enough fit that it works.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated having the pattern pieces so I didn't have to take my awning apart, but once I saw what the pieces were, the construction was pretty straight forward. I was able to sew the awning together without really looking at the instructions. Hopefully if you're able to figure out the measurements for your pieces, you can put it all together. Feel free to email or post questions. I'm happy to try to help. FYI - I used two, maybe even three packs of extra wide double fold bias tape.
Beautiful work, but you should probably know that any after-market carseat covers and strap covers are not safe. They can interfere with the harness function - even an extra 1/4 inch of fabric could cause the seat to fail in a crash. The fabric used by the carseat manufacturer is treated to be flame resistant which could be the difference between life and death in a crash. Not to mention that adding an after-market cover voids your carseat's warranty and in some places and instances could interfere with your insurance coverage.
ReplyDeleteIt's always best to buy accessories that are made for your seat from the carseat manufacturer.
I really love the ensemble! I was wondering what you might have used in the canopy covering over the seat itself. Did you use wire or did you use boning for that part? Was it bias tape that you also used in the bright pink? I'm trying to make a set for our carseat for our new baby coming in June of this year. Any ideas you have would be welcomed! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes, I used wide double-fold bias tape.
ReplyDeleteAs for the canopy, I recommend long zip ties. I looked for boning at my local fabric store, but none of the options seemed like they would work very well.
For the carseat above, I took the plastic wire out of the original canopy and put it in the new one. I have since made another set (http://what-rachel-made-today.blogspot.com/2011/12/car-seat-cover-canopy-skulls-and-camo.html) where I used long zip ties. I bought a pack of 36" zip ties at my local hardware store. I trimmed them down to size, cutting off the pointy end and the clasp end, and they worked great. My only caution is that the zip ties are wider than the original plastic wire, so I had to make sure I left the 'tube' of bias tape wide enough to fit them.
Good luck! I'd love to see pics of your fishished set!
Thanks so much for your reply! That helps me a lot. I was seeing some people had used zip ties for boning online and was wondering if that's what you did. That helps a lot. I sure will post. I' just still trying to get the right colored minky as I found a really cute Calico print at Hobby Lobby but would prefer not to have to use a black dot minky. It's a different color pink and Hobby Lobby nor JoAnn have the correct color pink in their dot minky. I'm looking online and will probably get a sample from the Minky Boutique. Thanks again. :)
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