Happy Together

A DIY craft blog

Is that a brown striped zebra in the back seat?

by 30 Comments

Meet the newest addition to our car.

Toddler Car Seat Cover

A brown striped zebra car seat cover. Material picked out by my daughter. I do believe she chose it because it reminded her of Marty from Madagascar. She loves Madagascar 2 and the Christmas one. I can’t tell you how many times we have watched it (well, she doesn’t really sit and watch it, but you know…watching it for two year olds attention span). It was actually birthed out of an accident. When we went to drop my hubby off the other week she said she had to go to the bathroom. There were none, so I asked her to wait. But, home was like 15-20 minutes away. She wasn’t able to wait and it was so sad to see how she reacted. She was so upset about wetting herself. It was so sad. I just spoke loving words and told her that it’s okay because I should have stopped and found a potty, etc.
Well, the “accident” went down the car seat and all over the actual seat of the car. I wanted to make a seat cover with a waterproof backing in case something like this happened again. So that is what I did. I just traced the pieces of the actual car seat cover then added a seam allowance. I cut my pieces out accordingly and added a yellow piping (made myself) to the side. I used yellow because I was a bit tired of pink, but now I think it looks kind of boyish. Maybe I’ll just have to make another one….. Then I made a casing around the edges and added elastic. I made sure that all seat belt slots, etc. were made and it was good to go.

***A Note Concerning Safety:
One lady left a comment about how it is not safe, etc. even though it’s cute. Thank you for your concern. It does mean a lot that you care about children and that they are the safest possible. Let me first say, the cover just goes directly over the one already on it. DO NOT completely replace the whole thing. The law does state you cannot add any extra padding to a car seat, etc. The fabric used is a lightweight cotton and the waterproof lining is just underneath the butt part (which was actually from her crib cover that is suppose to be safe, etc), so there’s barely anything more than her wearing a pair of pants kind of addition to the seat. As it being fire resistant, hmmm….. her clothes are made of the same material. So, I never thought about that. She left a good link with valuable info. If using a handmade cover most companies will void it’s warranty.
I suggest reading that before you make any decision of your own. I read the maunal on mine and it has things in there like using rolled up towels in the seat, other available seat covers you can buy from them, etc. The main thing is that it doesn’t mess up the harness. I made sure all the holes on mine were perfectly matching, etc. so it doesn’t mess up the harness system at all. I personally do not care about the warranty. I would just buy a new one myself instead of trying to go through a company if we ever were in a car accident. The warranty on ours doesn’t even cover accident situations, so it’s useless in that case anyways.
So, after thoughtful consideration and research I’m keeping mine on.

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Comments

  4. I don’t think that looks boyish at ALL! I’m a pink freak, and I still think yellow is cuter! I’m totally in awe of your abilities. It will probably be years before I could attempt something like that!

    Reply

  15. “Did you take apart the cover before you traced it?”

    No. I just manipulated the cover to trace each piece. That’s why I added the seam allowance after I traced it. The cover was pretty basically made. I think the hardest part for me was just doing the piping.

    “Would you be willing to make one of those custom order and how much would it cost?”

    I would consider doing a custom order 🙂 especially if you have the same car seat. If not, it might be difficult, as I would need to create a new pattern and I would need the cover of your car seat to make it. The price would just depend on a few factors. Just email me if you want to talk about this further 🙂 jessicafediw@yahoo.com

    Reply

  19. TOO CUTE! I have been wanting to do this to our carseat for awhile now but haven’t been brave enough! What kind of fabric did you use for the top layer- something more durable than a cotton? Also what did you use as an underlayer for waterproof- we are entering into potty training and its only a matter of time until this happens to us! Your blog is great!

    Reply

  21. This is awesome and what the warrenties DO when the time comes to file a claim is always in their favor not yours. So this old lady says do what you like cause you seem to be intellegent enough and give excellent care for your child. Your positive attitude and wonderful projects make my day brighter and I hope you continue making the unique things you make and sharing them with us. I’m sure the commenter had good intentions but was perhaps not as savvy,(no harm intended here). We all fear that which we do not know and you have the ambition to go for it. I for one am proud of you.

    Reply

  23. I think it’s way cute with the yellow – and it looks like it fits great and I think it’s safe. You make it sound doable, I feel like I could try to do this now!

    Reply

  26. very cute jessica!
    And funny…I’m posting some seat covers this week! Yours looks really spectacular though. Very professional.
    And I think the same lady has left comments on my blog before too.
    kind of annoying

    Reply

  28. I don’t think it looks too boyish at all. I love the yellow. And as far as safety goes…I don’t see how a cover could affect that at all. Good job!

    Reply

  29. as lovely as this looks, it’s not safe. i am a certified child safety seat technician and always recommend that no after market products be used with a child safety seat. this cover was not crashed tested with the seat.

    Reply

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