Friday, December 9, 2011

Car Seat Cover + Canopy {skulls and camo}

I recovered a carseat for this supremely talented cake artist / chef / all-around-Renaissance mother-to-be.  You should check out her cakes.  She's no longer baking for the public, but she could win any cake-off on Food Network.  A cake-off is like a face-off, but with cake.

I LOVE the fabrics she chose.  Camoflauge skulls.  Seriously, when have you seen a carseat with camouflage skulls?  Never.

Until now.

What makes the fabric choice doubly amusing is that the parents are the nicest, most peaceful adults you'll ever meet.  The fabric is as hard-edged as this baby's ever gonna get.


Baby Boy will rest on soft brown minky while peering up at the calming yoga phrases covering the underside of the canopy: peace and love, relax, breathe, stretch.

I also give myself kuddos because the skull fabric is a knit. Yes, stretchy knit. When I sent Mom-to-Be to the fabric store with her shopping list, it never occured to me to tell her to get a woven fabric, preferably from the quilting section. Duh me. Knits are so soft - no wonder she loved the fabric.

As you can see, the end result looks great. I practiced first, then sewed slowly. Several of the pieces, like the canopy, reversed to the yoga print, which is a tradtional woven quilter's cotton.  It was much easier to work with the knit + woven pinned together because the woven kept the knit from stretching as much.

I made a matching tent/canopy to protect Baby Boy from wind, rain, and peering eyes.  Notice the rounded corners and brown piping.  Details like that make such a difference to me.

The straps around the carseat handle hook together with velcro.  The buttons are purely decorative.

For more details on construction OR to see the pinkified carseat cover I made for my daughter, CLICK HERE.