How to Make a Toddler Car Seat Cover

Many car seat covers are very difficult to remove. You need to refer to the instruction manual just to remove them for washing. Toddler car seat covers are very handy because they're easy take on and off, a necessity for frequent washings. They can be a bit expensive, though, so it's more affordable to make your own.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• 2 yards durable fabric in a texture and pattern you desire
• Pen
• Yard stick
• Sharp shears
• Thin elastic, 1 roll
• Fabric glue
• Heavy books
• Cloth tape (in a color matching or complementary to the car seat fabric)

Instructions

1. Measure your car seat using a measuring tape from the top of the headrest to the bottom of the seat. Be sure to press the tape measure into the seat to get the full length and accurate length. Do the same for the width of the car seat.

2. Take your fabric and turn the pattern face down. Transfer the measurements of the car seat to the back of the fabric using the measuring tape and a pen but add three inches to the length and three inches to the width. Make two dots for the top, two for the bottom, and two on each side.

3. Connect the dots with your pen and a yardstick to complete the drawing, making a large rectangle. Using the pen, roughly round off the corners so they are not sharp. Cut out the rounded rectangle with your shears.

4. Place the elastic around the inside edge of the rounded rectangle about 1 inch from the edge.

5. Smear a thin line of glue around the inner edge of the entire rectangle, almost to the very edge. Fold over the elastic, taking care not to glue the fabric to the elastic but rather onto the fabric itself.

6. Place heavy books on top of the glued sections and allow to dry.

7. Turn the car seat cover over and put onto the car seat. Feel with your hands where the top of the shoulder straps begin and put a tiny dot with your pen on the car seat cover. Put another dot at the bottom where each strap begins. And add two more dots noting the width of the center buckle piece.

8. Remove the car seat cover and connect the dots again using the yardstick and pen. Cut along the lines. You should have two even vertical lines for each shoulder strap and one short horizontal line for the buckle.

9. Apply cloth tape to the edges of the cuts in the fabric, folding each piece over lengthwise so that it evenly covers the front and back of the slits.

References

• Make Them Yourself