DIY stretchy car seat cover

Taking a break from pregnancy/house update/vacation posts to write about a DIY project I recently made.  I fell in love with those striped, stretchy knit car seat covers that seem to be everywhere on blogs and social media right now.  I have a heavier weight car seat cover that I used with Arlo, but for this summer baby I wanted something lighter and more breathable that still allowed me to provide shade and protection when we need to.  I had planned on just buying one of these covers, but realized I could easily make my own for a fraction of the price - and I already had the materials on hand!  I had recently bought several yards of stretch knit material to sew baby hats and headbands, and realized I had the exact amount I needed to whip up a seat cover - and in a striped black and white pattern just like the one I was planing to buy.  I think in times like these it was just meant to be...

I based the size of this cover to fit a Chicco Keyfit 30, but I think it would likely stretch to accommodate most brands of infant car seats.  One of the best things about this project is that it's multi-purposed - it can also be used as a high chair cover, nursing coverup, or shopping cart cover.  It folds up to a compact, lightweight, portable size so you can always have it on hand in the diaper bag.

Ok, on to the tutorial!

DIY stretchy car seat cover

Materials needed:

• lightweight stretch knit fabric - fabric that has a lot of stretch to it works best
• coordinating thread
• scissors

1.)  Start by prewashing your fabric.   Although I don't think stretch knit will shrink too much, it's a good practice to always prewash everything before you sew.

2.)  Cut your fabric to 29" tall by 63" wide, making sure that the width is the stretchy part!  note: if your car seat is larger than a Chicco Keyfit, you may need to cut your fabric a bit wider.

3.)  Fold fabric in half width-wise (see photo below) and lay flat so fold is on left, and fabric is wrong side out.

4.)  Stitch up right side of fabric using a zig-zag or stretch stitch if your machine has one.  (Ignore the pins in the photo below for now, I am about to explain those...)  Your fabric should now be in the shape of a tube with the top and bottom being the open part.

5.)   Keeping fabric wrong side out, lay your fabric flat again.  Measure and pin the corners as I did in the photo below, 8" over from each side and 14" down from the top.  Put a pin in each of those locations and then run pins between them, making a triangle shape.  I used a marking pen and straight edge to draw a line first, then inserted my pins along the line.

6.)  Repeat for other side.

7.)  Sew along the pin lines, again using a zig-zag or stretch stitch.  Now is a good time to mention the walking foot.  I recently purchased one for all the knit fabric projects that I am in the process of making, and let me tell you - it is a game changer!  A walking foot helps to feed the fabric evenly on top and bottom, avoiding the annoying bunching that can otherwise happen when working with knits.  I highly recommend one if you plan to work with this type of fabric often, they run only about $20 at JoAnns.

8.)  Using a rotary cutter (or scissors), cut off triangle of fabric that you just sewed.  Repeat for other side.  note: don't cut off the stitched line that you just sewed!

This is what it should look like at this point:

Hey, guess what?!  You are done!  That's how incredibly easy these are.  Turn it right-side out and pop on your car seat!  The small hole is at the top and the larger hole is on the bottom.  There is no need to hem the top or bottom because this type of fabric will not fray.

See how stretchy it is?  So easy to peek at baby!

I was just a tiny bit sad that I had used up every inch of this fabric that I bought without making a baby hat, which was this materials original intended use.  Well, I had used up almost every inch...  I realized the two cut off triangles could be sewn into a piece large enough for a newborn size hat!

Now, I can say that I used up every inch....

This cover (and hat!) cost only $10 for the fabric, about a third of the price of a ready-made one you might buy online.  It only takes about 10-15 minutes to sew up and would make a great gift as well.  If you make this tutorial please let me know, I would love to see pictures and know how it worked out for you!  Here is a picture I found on Pinterest showing how else you can use a stretchy cover like the one I made:

happy sewing!  :)

recently made things

I almost always have a craft project or two that I am currently working on.  However in the last few months it has not been uncommon for me to have several projects in the works at one time.  I don't know what lit the fire in me but lately I have felt like I can't spend enough time making things!  I think it might have been a combination of the new house needing decorations and the arrival of autumn and cooler weather, which always makes me want to crochet every spare minute.  My first big project as of recent was the teepee I made for Arlo, which he absolutely loves, and then I kinda went from there.  If you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen most of these, but here on the blog I can provide a link to the project I used as inspiration.

First up, an oversize ruler growth chart for Arlo.  I saw these on Pinterest years ago and have always wanted to make one.  I read several tutorials but this one was the one I most closely followed.  I originally planned to use a stencil for the numbers and just sponge paint them on, but didn't like the look when I practiced it on a scrap piece.  So I opted to trace the stencil lightly with a pencil, and then do all the painting by hand.  This method took way longer but it turned out even better than I hoped it would.  I usually opt for a dark stain for wood but wanted the painted letters to really pop so I picked a lighter color.  Total cost for this project was around $10 as I only had to buy the wood board and fine paintbrush, I had all of the other materials on hand already.  I haven't yet officially made a mark for how tall he is, I plan to mark it on his second birthday in a couple of weeks.

Just before Halloween I had the motivation to do a little pattern writing, so I made these cute little Halloween crochet corks.  You might remember the Holiday cork set I made last year.  These are the same idea -- little crochet figurines around wine corks.  I started with the pumpkin and then made a skeleton and Frankenstein to go with him, and then kind of lost steam after that.  I never got around to publishing the patterns even though I have them ready to go, but there is always next year...  Total cost of this project was free because I already had the yarn on hand and it was easy to quickly down three bottles of wine  ;)

I am not traditionally a painter and had actually never before painted on canvas, but I had so much fun hand painting the ruler growth chart that I decided to try another painting project.  I initially wanted to make just the deer head canvas seen below, but the canvases were on sale at JoAnns and I had a coupon so I bought two.  I made both of these during a single nap time one afternoon.  The deer head was really easy and fun to make, and is currently residing on top of our fireplace mantle as a fun Christmas decoration.  Go here to find out how you can make your own!

The other canvas was something I decided to make once I was home and had started the deer head painting, so it had to be something I already had all the materials for.  Let's call this one an impulse craft project.  And also a Pinterest fail -- turned success.  I followed the instructions for the birch tree canvas and ended up with this:

I sort of liked it, and set it upstairs in the hallway so I would see it frequently before I committed to putting a nail in the wall for it.  After a couple of days I decided it needed a little more work, and spent about an hour "erasing" the blobby black paint by going over it with white acrylic paint.  I then loved how it looked (so birchy!) and will be hanging it in our bedroom when I get around to working on the wall collage in there...  Lesson learned - credit cards are meant for buying things, not for painting things!  I think I spent around $5 on each canvas, $2 on paint, $4 on glitter and $4 on the gold paint pen to make the K + E.  Not bad for two pieces of wall art.

This next crochet project was something I saw some else make and share on Instagram.  I am slowly starting to develop a crochet wall hanging obsession, and when I saw these I knew I had just the right spot for them.  In our new house, we have a front room that I suppose is designed to be a formal living room, but right now it's pretty much empty.  We do have plans for eventual built-in bookcases and new furniture, but for now all that's in the budget is these free crochet hangings, ha.  The pattern was written to be a rug, but with an appropriate sized hook and yarn weight, it can be made into pretty much any size desired.  I used navy yarn that I already had on hand and hung them above our vintage sewing table.  I love, love, love them and kind of want some in every room of the house.  I was a little nervous to hang them up because I had to put eight nails in the wall for each one, but once I put them up I knew I wouldn't be taking them down any time soon.

I took a little break from my constant crocheting to do a little sewing (have I mentioned how much I love to sew?!) and make Arlo a couple of pillowcases for his toddler sized pillow.  I recently started putting his little pillow in the crib with him, and he seems to really enjoy using it.  Standard size pillowcases are way too big, so I whipped up a couple that fit it just right.  I used flannel fabric because we are heading into winter, but will probably make a few more warm weather cases at a later date.  Total cost was only a few dollars as the deer fabric was on super sale and I already had the other fabric on hand.  I used this great video tutorial, but used only two colors instead of three. 

Out of the leftover deer fabric I made Arlo a pair of pajama pants.  I didn't really use a pattern or tutorial for these, I just traced a pair of pants that fit him currently and added a seam allowance and an inch or so to the length so he has some grow room.  The decision to not follow a pattern was likely why half of the deer ended up upside down, which initially made me annoyed because at that point I had already cut the fabric and didn't have enough to redo them.  So I proceeded with the project and then posted a pic to Instagram.  Someone mentioned that half the deer would be right side up to Arlo as he wore them and then it all made sense and I loved the pants and all was right with the world again.  Or something like that.  Anyway, pants:

Up next is a quick and easy project I started before Halloween but didn't figure out just the right spot to hang it until nearly Thanksgiving.  It is a cute little pumpkin garland, and I ended up putting it in our living room above our sofa wall collage.  I used sewing pins to hang it so the holes in the wall are super tiny and not visible to the eye unless you are actually standing on the sofa, which most of our house guests typically refrain from during their stay.  Cost: free as I already had the yarn, pattern: here.

Before I even took down the pumpkin garland I knew I wanted a Christmas garland to replace it, so I found this quick and easy tutorial online.  At the time I didn't have a pom pom maker (I have since bought one for other crafts) so I used two empty TP tubes, which worked pretty well!  Cost was only a couple of dollars for the mini ornaments.

I started making this little lamb over a year ago, and finally got around to finishing it in the last few weeks.  I followed the pattern pretty much as written but did go up a couple of hook sizes because I was struggling with the small hooks and that super fluffy yarn.  Not sure where I am going to keep him but for now he is sitting on a shelf in the office guarding my yarn stash, and doing a darn good job of it.

Next project was very quick and easy, and required that I learn how to make my own pom poms which turns out is also very quick and easy.   It uses a large hook and chunky yarn so it can be made in around an hour or less.  Arlo has had quite the hat obsession for a while now and wants to wear them all day (indoors and out) so he was pretty happy about the hat mama made him...  Pattern here but you do have to create an account on the Lions Brand website (it's free and easy!)  I ended up making two hats, one rainbow colored and one red & white, and the cost for each was around $5 for the yarn. 

On our recent drive up to DC for thanksgiving, I started making these adorable earwarmers and legwarmers for Arlo's little friend, Lyra.  The pattern uses a shell stitch which I don't remember having done in the past, and I immediately fell in love with it.  It's an easy, repeatable stitch that is almost meditating to crochet.  In fact, I loved it so much I also made a set for our babysitter's daughter and plan to make myself earwarmers out of a similar pattern.  Not going to mention the cost because it is a gift but I was able to make each set out of exactly one skein of yarn.

Arlo modeling them after I finished them during our trip.  It always helps to have a kid the same size as the person you are making the gift for!  He has actually tried to steal them several times now so he can wear them himself.  Are they still girly if I make him a set in blue and grey??  ;)

 

Speaking of Lyra, she is also now a big sister!  Her family welcomed their new little lady, Lucy, at the beginning of the month.  Of course I wanted to make her a little something, and decided upon this sweet little pixie bonnet (also made with a shell stitch!)  It turned out great and I hope she loves it.  This little bonnet would also make an excellent photo prop for anyone doing newborn photos.  I love the slightly scalloped edge and subtle yarn variegation.

And finally, a couple of my girlfriends and I who regularly get together for lunch dates (I like to think of us as "ladies who lunch" because it makes us sound fancy, ha) decided to do an ornament exchange this year.  I decided that in addition to buying an ornament from the store, I would also crochet each of them one of my Holiday crochet corks.  These little Santas were so adorable hanging on our tree waiting for their new homes that I know I will probably end up making one for myself as well!

And they ended up loving the Santas so much that they requested another one, so I made a few trees and an elf...

Whew!  That was a lot of crafting.  You might think that all I do is craft all day long, but truth be told these were almost entirely done during nap times, or finished up after Arlo went to bed.  None of these projects were attempted whilst our tiny tornado of a toddler was on the loose, I know better than that.  Ha!  More projects to come soon, as I don't have any intentions on stopping this crafting madness anytime soon...

DIY teepee!

I gave a little preview of this project in my last post, and for anyone who guessed that I was sewing a teepee for Arlo, you guessed correctly!  Let me know where to send your can of coconut milk  ;)

I have wanted to make Arlo a teepee for quite a while now, but was a bit intimidated by what a large sewing project it would be.  I always seem to underestimate the amount of time that something will take me to complete, and this project was no exception.  I started it during nap time one weekend afternoon, and together Erik and I took measurements of how large it should be, did the math to add in seam allowances, and then together measured and cut all the panels.  I did all the sewing and set up, but I am so thankful Erik was there to help in the beginning.  The whole project took me about a week and a half, sewing during most naps and in the evenings after the little man went to bed. 

I took inspiration from two tutorials online to make ours, but most of it was made up as I went along.  The main part of the teepee is made from a painters drop cloth I bought at Lowe's.  I wanted to use real wooden dowels for the poles, but Lowe's didn't have any that would be long enough for the project.  So I oped to use PVC pipes that I spray painted to look like wood.  They were also a heck of a lot cheaper than wooden dowels would have been.  The door and flag bunting is made from fabric that I bought at JoAnns.  I used bias tape (for the first time ever!) to give the door a nice edge, as well as hold up the flag bunting.  The star on top is made with felt and scrap fabric using the reverse applique technique.  It was a super fun project to make, and I am really happy with how it turned out.  Arlo seems to really like it as well, he calls it a "peepee."  Guess we need to work on those "t" sounds! 

The quilt on the floor is one that my mom handmade for Arlo, and it serving as a temporary floor to the teepee.  I would love to find a thick round rug to put in it's place, and add some fluffy pillows.  I envision this space as a little reading nook for Arlo.  Books are at the top of his list of favorite things right now and this will give him a cozy little spot to hang out in and read.  The teepee is set up in his playroom, which is actually designed to be the formal dining room in our house.  But it's right off the kitchen and I can keep a close eye on him when I am cooking or washing dishes, so we decided that this setup made the most sense for us. 

The tutorials I used to make Arlo's teepee are this one (you can certainly see where I got most of my inspiration here), and this one where I got the idea to use PVC and sew pockets to hold them in place.  Sewing the pockets also made it so that I only had to spray paint the tops of the poles.  Oh - and if you do decide to make one and go this route, roughly sand the poles first.  I learned that the hard way and ended up painting them all twice when the paint started rubbing off the first time.  I drilled holes in the pipes near the top and secured them together with twine, and then wrapped sisal rope around the twine.  Total cost was I think somewhere in the neighborhood of $50.  The drop cloth (9' x 12') was the most expensive thing and ran around $25.  The poles were around $10 and the rest of the fabric, bias tape, and pom poms for the pillow came to around $15. 

Here is what it looked like as I was working on it, I took over the entire empty bonus room and turned it into a temporary sewing room:

And the final project all set up:

You can see in one of the above photos that I also made a matching pillow with leftover materials from the project.  I saw something similar on flickr, but without any instruction on how to make it.  So I just made it up as I went along.  The bunting is sewed on with reverse applique, and the pillowcase is an envelope style so it is removable.  I still have some large pieces of both the drop cloth and the teepee door fabric, still trying to think of a small project to make with them.

Erik and I are planning a big trip to Ikea in the next few weeks, and one of my main focuses is a storage solution for all of the toys sitting just outside the camera frame in the above photos.  Actually, I would by lying if I said I wasn't using cardboard moving boxes as temporary toy storage right now.  As soon as we find a more permanent solution, I will be sharing a little more of what the playroom looks like.  Hope you enjoyed seeing Arlo's homemade teepee!

Recently Made Things

Along with some nesting urges to get the nursery ready and decorated, I have also been feeling rather crafty as of recent, and have made several little projects in the past few weeks.  I even got out my sewing machine for the first time since we bought our new house and took on the renovation project, well over a year ago!  I forgot how much fun it is to sew baby things, and now I can't wait to make more.  Here are a few of my recent creations...

Woolly Owl Hat

I made this cute little hat from yarn I had leftover from my Half Moon Arm Warmers Pattern.  I customized the hat to fit an average 0-3 month size head, so our little guy will actually be able to wear it for the few months of cold weather we have here in the south.  You can download the pattern for free on Ravelry here, but I think you will need to set up a Ravelry account first (also no charge.)

Play Gym Re-Make

I picked up a baby play gym/activity mat at a yard sale over the summer for only $1.  It was not something I had planned on buying, but for such a low price I figured I couldn't go wrong.  I washed it and while it really was in great condition, I couldn't get past the bright colors and "babyish" look to it.  Neither Erik or I are a fan of that style.  So one afternoon last week, I decided to recover it with some flannel fabric that I had leftover from projects I made last year.  Here is a before and after:

To "re-make" the gym, I simply sewed the bottom part as a large "pillowcase" to fit the existing mat.  I then stuffed the mat into the cover, sewed it shut, and top stitched on the zoo animal pattern fabric.  It was a bit tricky running the whole thick mat through my machine, but we got through it!  I removed the fabric from the two bars that criss-cross the top of the gym, and just made new sleeves to fit those.  When I sewed those up, I added little yarn loops to hang the links/toys from.  I tried to just recover the tummy time pillow, but that ended up not working out as planned, and I ended up just making a new one of around the same size.  The only thing I wish I would have done differently is place the tabs to attach the bars in a little further towards the center of the mat.  You can see in my finished product the blue plastic links in the corners of the mat, but overall it's not a big deal.  I still love how it turned out! 

I crocheted a simple ring in coordinating colors to hang from above, and still need to figure out a few more toys that will work to hang from the links...

 Pear Blanket

I bought the fabric for this blanket a while back, not knowing what I would do with it at the time, but loving it too much to walk away.  It turns out I had just the right amount with which to make a blanket!  

 

The top is brown corduroy with aqua polka dots and small green pears, and the back of the blanket is green minky fabric that coordinates perfectly with the green pears.  I wanted to add a little something special so it wasn't just two pieces of fabric sewed together, so I decided to make a large pear on the front using a technique called reverse applique.  I used this tutorial for the reverse applique (which was really very easy) and then I used this tutorial to sew the blanket together.

After I was done I realized that the front and back didn't stay together in the middle they way I thought it would, and decided I needed to sew them together somehow.  My Mom had a great idea, to tack them together with a little bit of DMC floss.  It was the perfect solution, and I added the knots (through both layers of fabric) at the top of the pears which actually adds extra cuteness to the blanket. 

 Hanging Bathroom Shelf

Not everything I have made recently is for the baby!  I made this wooden shelf last month after seeing the tutorial on pinterest.  It turned out to be the perfect thing to hang above the toilet in our downstairs half-bath.  I love it!

I would love to tell you that I made the entire thing out of reclaimed wood and used recycled screws to fasten it together, but that would be a lie.  Truth be told, I went to Lowes and bought new materials to make it, and even had them cut the wood for me there.  As it turns out, the shelf as instructed in the tutorial would have been huge in that small space, so I did have Erik trim down each board by a few inches.  Since it was so heavy when we went to hang it up, and there was no stud conveniently located behind the spot where we put the hook, we ran 4" screws on a diagonal through the shelves and into a stud.  The holes are strategically covered up by the decor, and the hook is now purely for decoration.  Done and done.

Office Desk: from black to aqua

This isn't so much a craft as it is me just re-painting a piece of furniture, but I still thought I would share it since it is also a "recently made thing!"

When we moved into the new house I brought along this little table that I had been using as my desk at the old house.  It is just the right size, however it was painted a shiny black finish and the drawer was a bright green.  Erik painted it years ago, and I think I had requested those colors back then.  I am no longer interested in black furniture, so I decided to just re-paint it.  I took it outside and (wearing a mask) power sanded off as much of the black paint that I could, then put on a coat of light aqua satin finish paint.  I bought the premium paint from Lowes as they promised it would only take one coat, and sure enough it did!  The desk sits in the corner of my office, and while it looks a little small in this big empty space we will eventually have more furniture in here to fill it up a little better.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but the office walls are a light green, the desk is a light teal, and on the drawer is a darker teal porcelain knob.  This is where I sit and write almost all my blog posts (as I am right now) so now you can picture me writing as you read this  ;)

Hope you enjoyed my recently made things!