Car Seat Cover

I tend to have rather, um, large children. So when I was looking for a car seat for my son I wanted one that would last the duration of his car seat-bound years. I think its something like 30 years that they must be in a car seat. I know its for their safety, but come on! I used to ride without a seatbelt all the time! I was just telling my husband how my aunt would take me and my 2 sisters out in her two-seater 280ZX and my older sister and I would ride in the "way back" while my 3-year old baby sister sat in the front seat-without a car seat!! Yikes-it makes me shutter to think of it now.

Now, as a mom, I'm pretty fierce when it come to the car seats. I'm always the one to install them and I'm pretty particular about how securely they are installed. I'm always jumping on them and yanking on them to make sure they're belted in good and they don't budge. Its quite a sweaty affair that I won't go into...

So...when I was looking for a car seat for my big boy I knew I wanted a Britax because they are the safest. But they are also the priciest! I scoured the internet to find the best deal possible. I wanted to get the Britax Marathon because it goes all the way from 5 pounds to 65 pounds, and I'd never need to buy a bigger seat or a booster. Well I found a great deal online. Only one problem, the seat was pink. Not salmon or any other pinkish color that could slide by...it was P-I-N-K. So I thought, no problem I'll just make a new cover that is unmistakably masculine. So I bought this lovely seat:

Now I would never, ever dress my son in any outfit that looked as girlie as this seat, but like I said, I was going to make a new cover before his butt ever sat in this pink monstrosity. Right? Wrong. If you have kids you'll understand, and if you have more than one kid you'll understand even more. Things just take longer with kids. Getting in the car, eating a meal, taking a shower, getting dressed, finding your keys they were just playing with, you name it...it takes longer with kids. So this quick and easy project soon became a marathon sewing expedition. So my poor son had to ride in a girl's car seat for a teensie, weensie little bit. Okay, okay, it was something like 6 months. Poor kid. I hope he survives. In the interest of saving hes future dignity I never took any pictures of him in the actual car seat. So I'm covered, I hope.

So my story of the car seat cover starts off with my new shears. I finally broke down and bought a real pair of fabric shears. And let me tell you, they make SUCH a difference!! I'm in heaven with these new shiny sharps.

Beautiful, shiny, sharp. Ah, it just feels good knowing I can use these anytime
I want because they're MINE.

Here's a shot of the materials I picked for Bubba's new seat.
Very manly, if I do say so myself.

Cast of characters.

The first cut was like a dream, a conversion.

I will never go back to any other scissor, for sewing anyway.

Here are all the pieces after I'd spray-basted them to the batting and then cut them out(by the way, that spray-basting stuff is awesome!!) Figuring out the pattern using the existing seat cover was probably the hardest part. But now that I've done it once and have my pattern I could make a new seat cover for every season...if only I had the time!!

Here's the finished product.

I had fun creating this cover and look forward to making the next one. I've actually thought about making them to sell, but there's that silly time thing working against me.