Car Seat Recovery

Sometimes I get awesome ideas of projects I want to take on. Case in point:

This ugly car seat. 

In its defense, it's been through three kids (my two plus my niece), and its ugly poop color was a direct result of my persistence that we get something gender neutral when Avery was born because we didn't know if we'd have a boy in the future (okay fine, that turned out to be a good call).

But Harper will probably be our last (biological) baby, so bring on the pink! 

And bring on the impossible project!

Seriously, this project was super hard for me. Usually when I sew I'm making stuff I've made a million times because it’s for my Etsy shop. And while I'm good at what I make because I'm a perfectionist, I’m not super well-rounded in my sewing abilities.

A couple years ago I completed a project that has since been dubbed “The Nap Mat Fiasco.” It was a nightmare. My friend Rachel was making one from the same tutorial at the same time, and I’m pretty sure our texts back and forth were the only reason I kept any semblance of sanity while trying to feed inches of thick batting through my basic, non-industrial machine. 

This was much of the same.

I bought this PDF tutorial because I wasn’t loving the free ones I kept finding online. It was a great tutorial, although it is most definitely not a project for beginners.

Lessons learned: 1) How time-consuming it is to rip every seam out of a car seat; 2) How to attach elastic without a casing (thanks, Mom!); and 3) How to use the appropriate presser foot for a project.

I will admit that I am SO proud of myself for how this turned out.  There’s just something about taking on a challenge and successfully accomplishing it. I love how the fabrics coordinate and how tailored it looks (compared to just making/buying a universal slipcover). I love that it only cost me $30 for materials (which could’ve been even less if I hadn’t used designer fabrics) as opposed to paying someone else $100.

And if anyone asked me to make one for them, I would laugh. Really hard. In their face. 

Unless maybe it’s been over a year and I’ve forgotten how much I hated myself the past three days. And it’s a sister or BFF doing the asking. Or someone offers me a lot of money.

So now Harper has something pretty to come home from the hospital in. And I can cross one more thing off the pre-baby To Sew list.

Next up on said list: wet bags (both diaper bag and diaper pail sizes) and two nap mats (I learned my lesson from the first one, so these will be covers for KinderMats). Wish me luck!