Baby Car Seat Canopy Tutorial

It was half term a couple of weeks ago so I had some free time on my hands AND some energy which is nice after months of feeling exhausted! I have bought loads of fabric with projects in mind, I think my hubby was getting a little nervous I was never going to use it! So I set about on my first baby sewing project since finding we were pregnant! Can't believe it's taken me this long to get started! I'd seen these types of covers online and decided rather than buy one I thought I'd make one. I've photographed each step so you can make one too. It's super quick and easy and really only took me an afternoon. Think I may knock up some more for my preggers friends!

You will need:

• Two pieces of fabric measuring 103cm x86cm for the body and lining
• 4 bits of fabric measuring 23x8cm for the straps
• Co-ordinating(or contrasting!) machine cotton
• About 20cm of Velcro (hook and loop tape)

Here you can see the lovely pop of colour from the underside, and the car seat can still be easily carried with the fabric over the handle.

Photo tutorial after the jump.....

First you need to cut out the fabric for your lining and the outside of your cover.  Each piece needs to be 103cm x 86cm. If you have an obvious pattern on your fabric like mine, you may way to think about pattern placement when cutting out. I made sure that the pattern would be central once I had sewn it together.

To make the curved edges, I used a small bowl as a template and placed it in the corners so that the line I drew around it was roughly 1.5cm away from the edge (this is the amount of seam allowance for this pattern) Make sure you do this on one of the WRONG sides of your fabric so that the pencil lines don't show on the front.

Then pin both your pieces of fabric RIGHT sides together (so the two sides, i.e. the pattern you want on the outside are facing each other)

With your fabrics securely pinned, you can start stitching around the outside of your cover. Start on any side that you like, but bear in mind you will need to leave a gap so you can turn it inside out.The seam allowance on this pattern is 1.5cm and just stitch with your regular stitch.  Go slowly around the curves to make them nice and smooth.

In this picture you can just see the size of gap that I left, and you can see my stitching around the edge of the cove fabric.

Next in order to get crisp and neat corners you need to remove some of the bulk fabric, to do this you need to cut small triangles around the curve with the point of the triangle almost touching the stitching but not quite. 

Turn the whole thing inside out and then press it with an iron, making sure that all the seams are fully turned out, see above. Iron the gap closed so that the fabric folds inline with the rest of the cover. 

Then top stitch all the way around the cover using a co-ordinating thread. I used mint green so that it showed on the white and grey side. To get the stitching accurate I just lined up the inside edge of my sewing machine foot against the edge of the fabric to ensure it was evenly sewn all that way around, doing this should sew the gap shut neatly as well.

To make the straps, cut 4 pieces of fabric that measure 23x8cm. Two should be cut from the lining fabric and two from the outside material.

Pin them right sides together and stitch three of the sides, leaving one of the short sides un-sewn so that you can turn them inside out. Trim the corners like I have above in order to make your corners more sharp and crisp when turned inside out.

Here is the strap turned inside out and ironed, make sure all the seams are pushed out so that no fabric is lost.

Carefully fold in the remaining open ends and iron it shut.

Here I'm afraid I skipped a step (got a bit carried away!!!) But you can see that I also top stitched around the straps, and I also sewed on the velcro. You need to make sure you sew the two sections of velcro on alternate sides. So for example, I sewed the hooks on the plain lining side and the loops on the patterned outer side.

Fold the completed cover in half, short side to short side. Measure the cover to find out where the middle is and then position the tabs equally on either side. (Mine are placed about 12cm apart, so 6cm out from the sentry for each, but it will be different for each car seat I should imagine) Pin the straps in place and then try it on the carseat to make sure you are happy with the placement. You can re-adjust it at this point until you are happy with the positioning.

When you are happy with the placement, sew the straps on by stitching a rectangle in the centre of the strap.

When the straps are stitched it should look like this! Give the whole thing an iron and you are ready to go! TA DA! I can't wait for my little one to arrive so I photograph her in it! 

Hope this has been easy to follow, if you are confused about anything, please comment below and i'll get back to you ASAP.

Happy Sewing!

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Maile baby cardigan free pattern

Quick and easy baby fabric teething ring Tutorial  

Baby T-shirt appliqué 

Simple baby floor quilt