How to sew your own floppy seat cover

[tarabenet]

I sew. I teach sewing. etc. Floppy covers are very easy to make, although a lot of people don't seem to realize it. Would it be cheezy of me to offer a class in making one?

For you BBBers who sew, here is the nutshell version:
Take 2 pieces of 44" wide fabric, 1.5 yards each. Cut into ovals, sew right sides together. Turn, topstitch, add a row of casing stitching and thread in elastic. Put this into a shopping cart seat and mark where to cut and finish leg holes in front and long buttonholes for the seat belt in back. Quilt the floppy if you like (you can add batting before you do the original sew-and-turn, envelope-style. Add toy tethers if you wish. Use a purchased clip-lock seat belt if you want to avoid the cart seat belts.

For the class, I would show them how to mark the oval and I would provide a placement template for the leg-holes and strap slits.

Cheezy? Or useful?
My other job is nanny for my 13-month-old niece. She just recovered from a horrible bout of Rotavirus (sp) which cost her about 5 of her 25 pounds. The docs said this is a highly contagious virus that kids pick up from things like shopping carts and restaurant high chairs (and it can run rampant through a daycare, though that isn't her case). I now have a seriously adjusted respect for those floppy covers, y'know? So I'm making cart floppies in lots of great colors and seasonal fabrics for her. Is this worthy of a class? It would be a 2.5 hour class that would cost $20 per person. Students would provide their own supplies.

I'm asking for your feedback, so fire away!
TIA

Benet

[ellies mom]

I think it is a great idea. They would be easy to make. And I bet a lot of people don't believe you. The only suggestion I have is in response to the seatbelt thing. I didn't use the floppy style seat cover but the one I used had it's own belt. The problem was that if you wanted to actually "fasten" the child to the cart you had to rethread it everytime you used it. So I cut the seat belt in back and attached a second clip so I could clip the belt around the seat to secure it and then clip it in front around the child. So I would recommend if someone wanted to use their own belt to do something similar. Maybe even using two small caribineers in place of the clip in back.

Anyhow, I really do think it is a great idea. I just wanted to share my solution to my personal vent in case it helps.

[tarabenet]

So the safety belt was attached only to the floppy, and the floppy could be separately attached to the cart? Am I getting this picture right? Did you feel like Ellie was secure?

This is actually the one part of this pattern that is bothering me -- how to make it both easy and secure.

THANKS!

Benet

[ellies mom]

Let's see it I can exlain it better. The cover had two large button holes but not large enough to be easy of course. So you put the cover on the seat, put the child on the cover and then ran the belt around the metal bars on the back of the carts seat (what are they called?) and then though the button hole of the cover and then you could clip it together around the child. Then in order to remove it you had to reverse the process. It was a royal pain. So what I did was cut the belt in back and inserted another clip. Then I could put the cover on the cart, the child on the cover, and then clip it in back around the bars, and then clip it in front around the child. And the reverse was just as easy. So Ellie was attached to the cart basically with the cover in between and using our own belt. It was a lot easier than threading the belt through the holes everytime. Does that make more sense?

[tarabenet]

Got it! Thanks! I can see the ease and the security now. You've definitely made me think that more about the logisitics of the belt will be important in the class. No one really wants to use the dirty built-ins attached to the cart.

Thanks tons for your thoughts on this. You are always so helpful. I've got to go work on lesson plans.

Benet

[danagee]

Absolutely! You should definitely offer a class. What a great idea. They're so overpriced and for those of us who can sew, it's so hard to spend the $ on something like this once you buy one and see how simple it must've been to make.
I agree on the belt issue too, what a pain to thread it thru the cart.
Dana

[jennyjohn99]

So, I absolutely know nothing at all about sewing and I can't afford the 40 dollars for the floppy seats for wach of my twins. Is there someone that could make it for me if I got the fabric???

[jennyjohn99]

So, I absolutely know nothing at all about sewing and I can't afford the 40 dollars for the floppy seats for each of my twins. Is there someone that could make it for me if I got the fabric???