Car Seat Cover

I have been seeing these around lately and I love the whole concept and wanted to get one or more made for our new baby on the way. The only problem is that I haven't got a lot of time. I decided that there must be a way to make one out of a blanket I already have which would save me a bunch of time. If you want to make one from scratch go here for a tutorial on how to make this one.

Here is what I did to make this one. I took a receiving blanket that I already had and made sure it was big enough to fit over my carseat and cover everything that I wanted to be covered. I then found a scrap of fabric that matched to make my straps to attach it to the carseat.

I found that the blanket was not a perfect square so I folded it in half the longest way and pressed the crease with my iron.

Next I placed the blanket over the handle of my carseat like this with the crease on the handle and marked where I would want the attaching straps to be with a pin.

Like this.

Next I measured from each side of the blanket to my pins to make sure they were even. Mine were not from my eyeball measurement so I adjusted my pins to be 10 inches from each edge. This would of course vary some from carseat to carseat and blanket to blanket.

Next to make the straps I cut two strips of my coordinating fabric 4 inches wide. That was just a measurement I pulled out of my head.

I did not worry about length at this point. I placed two strips together, with the right sides of the fabric together.

Next I sewed a seam down each side. My seams were 3/8". There again I just pulled that measurement out of my head for no particular reason. I did this for each strap set (you should have 2).

I then turned each strip right side out, pressed flat with the iron and top stitched at 1/8".

Next I turned under a 1/2" twice on one end of the strap. I sewed along my bottom fold to hold this in place. NOTE: I was using flannel and this was a bit thick for sewing through. I will share my solution in a couple of steps.

Now I pinned this strap piece to the center crease on my blanket and....

Wrapped it around my carseat handle to see just how long I wanted the strap to be. I found that the tighter the better. I cut off the extra part of my strap piece.

I found that 8 3/4 " was the length I wanted. NOTE: After completing this project I decided I would probably go 8 1/4" for the length next time and make it a bit tighter.

Now repeat your folding and sewing step from above at the other end of the strap. Do this to both.

Because of the thickness of this fold I found it was easier to sew starting in about a 1/4" from each edge like this:

I wanted my straps to attach to the carseat with velcro. I know that buttons or snaps or ties would work too but my husband who often calls himself "fumble fingers" would find velcro the easiest to do so I chose that. I cut two strips just slightly shorter than the width of my strap pieces.

I sewed each piece to one end of the strap. Make sure you sew them on opposite sides.

When fastened it will look like this.

Now fold this strap in half to find it's center and match that with the center crease on your blanket. I centered the pin that I had marked with in the middle (width wise) of the strap.

Sew down the center of each strap (I used the crease on the blanket as a guide). Technically you are finished here, and can attach this to you carseat. I did that but found that I didn't like how it hung (seemed like it needed more stability).

So I went back to my machine and sewed another row of stitching on each side of the center row.

I felt like this hung better. That is it, you are finished. A nice little tent for your little one that you don't have to worry about falling off as you carry your carseat.

Here is the side view.

Here is the second one I made.