DIY Baby Carseat Cover Tutorial

I absolutely LOVE the carseat covers that are all the craze today. I had one with my first and second, but somehow it got lost and so I was in desperate need to make one for my third. They are super quick and easy to make and you can pretty much customize them however you want (round the corners, add buttons on the handles, add some ric rac etc) - but I wanted something simple, easy and basic that gets the job done.

I have a Graco Snugride from 2011 so this tutorial is based to fit that. Carseats are pretty standard size but my only recommendation would be that when it comes time for the velcro straps, if it's possible to measure the car seat for it to go on, I would do that to ensure proper fit.

Materials:
- SIDES : Two one-yard pieces of cotton fabric (1 yard for the top and 1 yard will be the bottom)
- STRAPS: 4 pieces of 3.5" x 6.25" cotton fabric
- Velcro
- Coordinating thread
- Iron
- Washable fabric Marker 


1. Cut out all your fabric piece and cut off any selvedge edges you may have.
 
2.  Take your inside and outside and lay them right sides together. Pin and sew around all edges, leaving a 3" opening on a side to flip it. Clip your corners and turn right side out.

3. Top stitch these two pieces together and iron flat. Set aside.

4. Now let's take your 4 fabric pieces to make the handles! I used pieces that were from a Jelly Roll, so they already had been cut with pinking shears so I chose to just to do a topstitch across them to sew all sides of them together. You could sew the strap pieces right sides together (like we did in step 2) and turn inside out if your fabric has raw edges.



 

5. Once topstitched, take your 4 pieces of velcro - sewing on one onto each top front and than the other one at the bottom on the back. This way your velcro will meet up around the top handle of the carseat and form a loop. 

6. Voila! Loops! Now, let's attach them to the cover we finished.



7. Lay out your cover & measure down 16" from the top of your cover and lay the top of your strap fabric right there. Measure over 10" from each side and place your strap. This should give yourself  about 9" between your two fabric straps (from inside left strap to inside right of strap). Sew a 1/2" single rectangle to attach each strap, so we now measure down 3" from the top of the fabric strap and using your Mark B Gone market, draw a 1/2" square. Pin and sew your square outline (don't mind that my outline looks huge - just do 1/2 ") ;)

8.  Once the square is sewn in the middle of your straps, your carseat cover is ready for use! I outlined my squares for you because it's hard to see ;)

Once I finished this one, I made a few additional ones from other fabric I had too! Overall, they took me about 20 minutes each and make perfect baby shower/new baby gifts for friends!