Kiddie Car Seat Covers

A few months ago we bought a new car, a car with very nice leather seats. 

My husband and I love the seats but the boys were having a harder time adjusting to the very slippery leather. each time Orion would jump out of the car his booster seat would come tumbling out after him. 

After looking around I still couldn't find anything affordable that would be both comfortable for the children and protect my seats from the little monsters. I wanted something fun, not blah grey and black, so I decided to make my own.

it just not my style, and they are $25 bucks each! 

So instead I made 2 of these

Piratey car seat protectors for my little mateys

Sorry about the cruddy pictures, the rain only stopped for a few minutes!

I simply took some freezer paper, laid it on the seat, and sketched out a rough shape and size for the covers. I made sure to note on my template where the head rest connected to the seat and where the LATCH carseat hooks were so I could anchor the covers to my seat. Then I took my template back in the house, and laid it out on my fabric. I wanted my seat protectors to be thick enough to absorb and spills but also be snuggly for Orion whose back sits against the seat. 

I suppouse you could use batting, but it wouldn't absorb much, so I sandwiched old towels in between my top fabric and the backing. I simply laid the fabrics right sides out, traced my template and sewed it all together. I cut away the excess material and pinned bias tape all aound the edges and sewed them together, just like quiltmaking.

the top of the covers

At the top I sewed button holes for the posts of the head rest to go through. We push our head rests down all the way, so I really  don't care what the button holes look like. This keeps the top of the cover in place and keeps the whole thing looking very tidy.

center ties

bottom ties (complete with non matching bias tape, I ran out of blue:) )

I also added ties at the center of the cover to tie to the LATCH seat components and I added ties to the bottom of the covers, which I tied up to a bar under the seat. None of the ties can be seen,  but they do need to be long enough to be easily tied and untied.

See the non matching bias tape disappears completely!

I backed my covers with a soft flannel but since they are not visible the backing isn't really necessary.

All together the car seat covers were about $10 in fabric, $5 in bias tape (cause I was too lazy to make my own that day), and an afternoon of ironing, pinning and sewing. They couldn't have been easier to make, and took hardly anytime to do. If you did not want to tie them at the bottom you could even add pockets for toys and books.

I love the way they turned out and how unique they are. Plus they wash nicely, stay in place perfectly, and look much more fun than the boring black polyester ones you can buy! I mean what's cooler than a starfish with a broadsword?

Hope on over to the Parties to see all the other fab stuff

Peace Me Mateys!