Sewing: DIY Car Seat Cover Canopy Tutorial

Today's Sewing Tutorial is for this adorable

DIY Car Seat Canopy Cover

You may have noticed I am the ONLY girl in this household.

When a close friend of mine found out she was expecting a girl I jumped at the chance to make this adorable PINK Car Seat Cover for her!  :)

I found inspiration by these blogs:

Oopsie Daisy Carseat Cover Tutorial

Saw Dust & Paper Scraps- Gift for New Baby

Make it Do - Baby Car Seat Cover

Please visit these blogs as they have amazing tutorials also!

 First: Start with some adorable fabric.

I scored this fabric below from one of my favorite places:

Hobby Lobby!

Click HERE for this week's Hobby Lobby sales.

Step 2: Cut to Size: 35 x 42

I followed THREE main Car Seat Tutorials and took the best from all of them. 

The final size I ended up with was 35 wide by 42 inches long.

Step 3: Round Corners

I loved the car seat covers with rounded corners. The process for each was a little different. I decided to go with a wide sweeping corner.  I marked in 10 inches from the corner on the narrow side (front of the cover) and on the widest part of the cover 14 inches from the corner (the side of the cover).

Like this:

Then I drew a line between these marks (making a triangle) and free hand drew a curvy line within the triangle that looked nice.

If this step makes you uneasy you can just grab a bowl from the kitchen and use the rounded edge as your guide.

Step 4: Pin edges together and cut your First corner

Step 5: Trace & Cut all Corners

In this step I simply flipped over my fabric rectangle, matched up the edges and traced this corner curve onto the other corner.  I did this three times and got the same pretty curved edge in each corner. Easy!

*Tip:  Remember put your fabric right sides together at this phase prior to cutting so that your edges are all pinned and ready for sewing in the next phase :)

Step 6:  Sew 1/4 Around the edge

The important thing to remember for this step is that your fabrics must be facing wrong sides OUT.  We will be leaving a small 4 inch area not sewn closed so that we can turn the fabric right side out.

Step 7: Clip Corners

Clipping the corners will help make the fabric lay nicer once flipped the correct way.

Step 8: Time to FLIP!

Now it's time to flip inside out, or in this case, RIGHT side out.  

If you have trouble with the corners, grab a pencil or chopstick to really push the corners and edges out nicely.

* TIP: Remember to Press with an iron once you have your car seat cover right side out to get a nice crisp edge.

Step 9: Edging

Sew 1/4 inch around the entire length of the car seat cover.

This will make a super finished edge that looks very professional. It also seals up the small area that we left un-sewn.  I'm using white thread on top and brown in the bobbin below.

Here is a close up of the edge.... doesn't it look pretty?!

Step 10: Create Straps

There were so many different ways to make handles for the car seat cover that it was hard to choose. I didn't have enough fabric to get too creative so I sewed what I had leftover into small strips.  My plan was to create a brown contrasting stripe down the center.  

If you like my straps here is how to make them

I took 4 pieces of fabric that were 2 x 9.5 and sewed them together

Cut the edges with a rotary cutter to make sure they are all even.

Here is what they look like after sewing each strip together:

* Tip: Be sure to Iron before sewing together in step 11


Step 11: Make a tube!

Now you will need to sew the edges of your 4 strips together to make a tube of fabric.

Below you can see on the left what the finished tube will look like once you have turned it right side out. 

The one on the right shows what it looks like after sewing.

Step 12: Iron & Close Tube

The next step requires you to iron your tube flat.

Be sure to position your stripes of fabric just how you will want them in this phase.

I wanted a Brown stripe in the middle with Pink on each side. Before Ironing I made sure it looked good and ironed into place

Then, gently tuck under the top and bottom about 1/2 inch and sew closed.  

I sewed all along the edge of the entire strap to again make a finished edge.

Step 13: Get ready for Velcro

The step below shows my finished Velcro ready straps!

I put two rectangles of the soft "loop" side on the top of the strap and two rectangles of the "hook" on the bottom part of the strap.

*TIP- Be sure to position these correctly so that the strap will close. This means that your "hook" Velcro will actually be on the opposite side of the strap than the "loop".  

See below how it is turned to show both sides?

Step 14: Attach the Straps

This step had me totally nervous.

I'm not going to lie.

Here is a close up of the strap: 

It turned out Great!! 

First, I folded the fabric in half the wide way (or "Hamburger style" as Oopsie Daisy says in her tutorial)

I measured 9 1/2 inches from each side of the car seat cover.

Then, I sewed on each strap with a small rectangle.

I used a zig-zag stitch on mine.

Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think!

And, if you like this tutorial, please follow my blog :)

Thank you

This project was featured on:

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