May 04, 2007

Car seat cover!

How time flies when you're busy! These past few months I've been sewing a lot for the new one on the way, so no time for interesting experiments, alas! My latest accomplishment might also be quite boring to some of you: a stretch terry car seat cover. The look and touch of the original fabric I never liked, and as our new babe will have to be transported in it all summer long, I figured I might as well try and make a cover that's washable, soft, and comfortable when it's hot outside. So I just traced the thing, used thin elastic for fitting it on the car seat, and fold over elastic to finish the sides where the seat belt goes. To my surprise it was really a piece of cake: it took me only an hour or so to finish. Those of you that use a Maxi Cosy of the same model: feel free to ask for the pattern.

Edit: Dear Sarah, and those that have asked me for the pattern: the MC I had would by now classify as antique, since it's probably 14 years old now (I inherited it from my sister, and later gave it to a friend that gave it to a friend and so on...)
so my pattern would probably be of no use to anyone anymore. But in short, here's the working description to make one yourself, if you can sew it's really not hard to do.
Take the cover of your MC, and pay attention to how the elastic bands are fastening the cover to the plastic hooks in the seat (if it looks complicated, take a photo, so you'll have it for reference later).
Take a piece of waste cloth, woven, like an old blanket f.e. or some thick transparent plastic foil and pin it to the subsequent pieces the original cover is made of. Do this separately for each piece. In my case the cover had a middle part with three holes in it and two side parts. Trace the outline of the seams and the holes for the belts with a ballpoint or marker on your fabric. Use these as a pattern and cut from stretch terry, adding seam allowances for the inner seams and almost none for the outlines. Don't cut out holes in the middle piece, mere slits will give you a big enough hole already. Stitch pattern pieces to one another, and finish the outer edge, and the inner edge of the holes with fold over elastic. You'll probably need to add some loops of elastic band to attach the cover (it goes OVER the original) to the seat. Pay attention when taking out the belts, if needed take photographs, so you don't have to re-invent how to reassemble them (don't ask me how I know... :)
You can do this. And stretch terry is very forgiving, believe me. Good luck!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clever idea! I wish that I had thought of that, back a couple years ago!

Chauntelle said...

I stumbled upon your website, and am so glad that I did!!! Thank you for your inspiration and willingness to teach and to share! I'm new to sewing, but your blog has me itching to try a few new things--Thank you! --Chauntelle

Anonymous said...

Wat een leuk site heb je, via de nederlandse site ben ik op je web-log terecht gekomen.
Heb je voor mij het patroon van de hoes voor een maxi-cosi?
Heb je eventueel ook ideeen hoe ik een borstvoedingsshirt zou kunnen maken?

Alvast bedankt voor je reactie, ik ga snel verder zoeken!
Eline

Suzy said...

Hallo Eline, als je me je adres geeft, stuur ik het op. Mail me maar op voornopapestaartjehotmailpuntcom
groeten van
Suzanne

calabella said...

Wow, just found your blog and this car seat cover is just what I'm looking for to make for my new grandchild who is still in the making. :o) I'll try to figure out how to do this. Thank you for the inspiration.
sewcrazy

Sarah said...

what model of Maxi Cosi do you have? I have the Citi - is it the same? if yes, can you email the pattern please?

Thanks so much,
Sarah

PS: Love your blog and patterns.