This is something I have been working on for a lonnnnggg time. I don't know about your kids, but mine leaves a crumbly little mess in his car seat. He uses all of the nooks and cranny's of the seat to stash his cheerios/pretzels for later. The other day we noticed him licking his index finger over and over again. We thought, "what is that child doing?" Then, we realized he was sticking his finger in the corner of the seat to get the crumbs stuck to it so he could eat them. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry: laugh because he thought of something so crafty, or cry because I let him sit in a seat with crumbs in the cranny's.
The messy seat is pretty embarrassing, but it is so annoying to get the cover off that we never do it. I realized we needed something that could just slip over the original seat cover that we could remove easily for washing.
So here is the original in all it's glory with cheerios hiding in the little slits by the bottom buckle...
This project took me forever, but it wasn't really difficult to do! However, I decided not to try to make a tutorial because I was really making it up as I went. This could have turned into a waste of fabric very quickly.All I did was:
~ cut my fabric into an oval shape by laying it out flat and rounding out the corners. (using about 1 1/4 yards)
~ placed fabric right sides together and sewed around the edge, leaving a slit for turning fabric out.
~ turn fabric right side out and sew around the edge again (this time about 1" inward from the edge)
~ now you have a channel for the elastic. lace your elastic and cut it to the right length depending on your car seat size.
~ last, I cut slits where the seat belt straps and bottom buckle go and added some bias tape to keep them from fraying.
*Note: Although you can't really see in the pictures, the slits for the seat belt straps go down the length of the strap so they can just pull right through. This makes is super easy to take the cover on and off. You don't have to do all the work of taking the seat belt's off from the back to lace them through!
Voila!
I am also excited to say that, the seat cover is also reversible! 
Seriously this is soooo cute!!! I would love one of these because my baby has those same cheerio crumbs in his seat too!!! This is great!
ReplyDeleteBtw, if you decide you really want the family blocks or the painted vase/jars let me know and I will TOTALLY make some for you!!! Thanks! :o)
Lindsay, I am so seriously impressed with this fitted carseat cover!! I always wanted to make one of these... but never knew how. You have just totally made my day!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to tell you that I just got little tears in my eyes, when I saw your button on your blog. THANK YOU. That made my day times 2!!
Have a great weekend!
~Alison (Oopsey Daisy)
Legally, you can't have anything extra under the baby and the carseat straps (you're not even supposed to have the baby or child in a winter coat or snowsuit) I just wanted to let you know that this could cause problems in an accident for the child. The cars seats can't be changed and still work. It is cute as a button, but really the grose, uncomfortable car seat is the only thing that is legal. This won't be allowed in a carseat check, either.
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