Have you ever seen something and immediately thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Happens to me all the time. When I first saw a woman in a grocery store pushing a shopping cart with a cover over the baby seat area I was amazed and I immediately thought that I wished that I would have had one of those when my kids were little to keep all the germs from the cart off of my babies. Isn’t that the way it usually goes though? I guess it’s because our lives are so busy and we don’t have time to think of these kinds of things when we are in the middle of it all. I don’t have small children anymore but I do have grand kids so I have the opportunity to make these fun things for them. Also, I apologize for my pictures up front. The HD card that I use for my camera broke and I haven’t been able to get a new one yet so I had to use my iPhone. Here is what you need to do:
Get:
- 2 2/3 yards cotton fabric – I am going to use flannel because I already have some and I want it to be washable, durable and soft at the same time.
- 1 1/2 yards 3/8″ elastic
- Coordinating Thread
- 2 Medium Sized Safety Pins
- Sewing Machine
As with all other sewing projects I like to wash, dry and press my material so that there is no chance of shrinkage and my cart cover will keep it’s shape wash after wash after wash. And this baby will probably need to be washed often!
Take your 2 pieces of cotton fabric and lay them down right sides together on your cutting surface and pin the 4 sides together so they don’t slip. I am using the same material for the front as I am for the back so I just cut my material in half.
Measure 42″ by 46″ and cut the 2 pieces of material to this size.
Lay your two pieces of material right sides together and pin them well here before you go any further because you are going to cut the two main pieces of fabric together and you don’t want them to slip.
Now you are going to need to round your 4 corners so take a medium size mixing bowl or a plate and lay it on each of the 4 corners and mark the material.
Cut each of the 4 corners with scissors or a rotary cutter. I like to use a rotary cutter because it is so much faster and because my corners will be exactly the same.
Sew a 1/2″ seam all the way around the body of your cover and then to give the seams strength,
then sew a zig zag stitch all the way around to give your cover extra strength. Don’t worry that you have now closed up your material and that you haven’t left yourself any where to turn your material. You are now going to cut a big hole for the leg opening so no worries!
Measuring from the 46″ side of the fabric, mark the center of your material. Now you are going to measure up 14 1/2 inches from your center mark you just made and draw a 11″ x 4″ rectangle.
Using a marking pencil and a small bowl or plate, draw curved corners on the rectangle you just drew and cut your curved rectangle out. Now it is time to turn your fabric right side out through the leg opening you just made.
I like to have my pattern pieces nice and flat when I am piecing a project together so here I iron the whole cover making sure to get all the wrinkles out. The nice thing about ironing is you won’t need to pin if you iron! I would rather iron than pin although it is a known fact that I don’t like to iron either. I like pinning even less – it is a pain, literally and figuratively!
Sew a 1/2″ seam allowance all the way around your cover leaving a 2″ opening for the elastic.
Take one of your medium sized safety pins and clip it onto the end of your elastic and pin it to one of the openings to the casing you just made.
Now pin safety pin #2 to the other side of your elastic and push it through your casing until it comes out the other side. Your material will bunch but that’s ok. It’s supposed to! And be patient because this takes a long time.
Sew the ends of your elastic together and then sew your opening shut.
You will want to adjust the ruffling on your cover so that it is ruffled evenly all the way around.
Now you are ready to sew the piece of material that is going to lay between your little ones legs. Cut two rectangle pieces that measure 5 1/2″ x 3 1/2″.
Place these two pieces right sides together and then sew a 1/2″ seam down each of the 5 1/2″ sides.
Turn this tube right side out and iron the whole thing flat.
Top stitch both sides of the tube.
Take your cover over to your ironing board and folding the top and bottom of the cover at the leg opening over about 1/4″, press all the way around this rectangle area and then do it a second time to give it strength and then pin all the way around.
Find the center of your leg strip and match it up with the center of the leg opening and pin your leg strip in place.
This is what it looks like all pinned up. WARNING HERE!!!! When you start sewing around this leg area, be careful. I had a lot of pins right here and I kept poking myself and it hurt! Go slow and you should be okay. Again, I apologize for these awful pictures.
Stitch all the way around your leg openings with a 1/8″ seam
and then sew another seam measuring another 1/8″ out from your first stitch to strengthen your leg openings. You will get a lot of movement here from your little ones so you want it to be reinforced! Guess what? Your done!
This is what it looks like in a shopping cart and it is perfect. This particular pattern is large enough for the bigger carts that you find at stores like Target or Walmart and yet there is enough elastic in this cover to securely attach it to a smaller cart like they have at Dollar Stores. I love it!
Since I made this out of a double thickness of flannel, it is super soft and thick AND the bonus for this whole project is that it was very inexpensive to make. I actually got this material for $1.47 a yard because there was a flaw on it that ran all the way along the selvedge and my Walmart agreed to give me $2.00 off per yard!!!! Score! I already had the elastic and thread so I purchased the needed flannel for about $3.50. Now these covers can run from $20 – $80 if you buy them already made. Mine isn’t fancy and doesn’t have all the little gadgets and pockets that some of the more expensive ones do but mine is made with love so there is no way a store can beat or replicate that!
Give this easy cover a try and let me know what you think. If you have ideas on ways to make it better or more fun, I would love to hear them.
Happy Cart Seat Cover Sewing!
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Becky