Quilted Carseat Canopy

I wanted to make my niece a quilted carseat canopy but I couldn’t find a quilted pattern. They looked fairly simple so I took all the information from several patterns and just adapted them to be quilted.

What you will need:

Sewing machine

Ruler

Something to make rounded curves like a big bowl or french curve ruler

Fabric marker or chalk

2 yards of contrasting fabric (I used three fabrics because of the extra design but usually two would suffice)

1/4 yard or less of one of the above colors of fabric for straps

1 yard of batting

Buttons, snaps or velcro

Pins

I picked my fabrics. My niece and her husband are Native American and like that style so I chose fabric in that design. I was going to use the striped design on the inside but when I spread it out, it made me dizzy and I couldn’t do that to a baby so I decided not to use it.

Step 1 (Cutting out fabric)

Cut two pieces of fabric in contrasting colors 42” long x 36” wide. If you are using a patterned fabric, make sure the design is oriented the correct way.

Cut your batting to 42″ long x 36″ wide

My first mistake – I like to tear my fabric instead of cutting it because I’m lazy it usually tears evenly but for some reason it tore crookedly for the top piece and I had to cut two inches off to make it straight. I added the striped pieces to the sides because I messed up am a problem solver. That is why you see the striped piece on mine.

Fold in half lengthwise and iron. This is so you will know where the center is.

Step 2 (Rounding the corners)

Place the bottom fabric right side up. Place the top piece on top of that right side down. Place the batting on top of that. Make sure it is all even. (I have the batting sticking out for the picture to show that it is underneath. Mine is upsdie down) Ignore the fact that I didn’t cut off the selvages.

Fold all of it in half lengthwise.

Measure 3″ up from the bottom corner and place your large bowl there. Draw the edge with chalk or a fabric marker.

Do the same with the top except measure 5″ up. I didn’t have a bowl big enough so I had to use the lid from my huge tamale pot.

Cut along the curve and pin.

Step 3 (Making the front opening)

Unfold and measure 18″ up from the bottom center and mark. The center should be easy to find from when you ironed it.

Do not cut it yet.

Pin all around the edges and leave a gap at the top that is large enough to turn after it is sewn.

Start sewing around the edges, starting at the top at one edge of where your opening is. Stop a 1/4″ before the center line and turn. Sew up along where you marked the center line, keeping a 1/4″ away. At the top of the mark, turn and sew down the other side of the line, keeping a 1/4″ away. At the bottom, turn and continue sewing around. Make sure to keep an opening for turning.

Cut the drawn line, being careful at the top not to cut through the seam.

Turn it right side out and push all the edges out. Pin the top closed.

Top stitch all around the edges. This will close the top opening and make it look nice.

Step 4 (quilting)

This is optional.

Originally, I planned on free motion quilting over it. I have never tried free motion quilting before but just bought a new Babylock Jazz II and thought I would try it. Silly me, I didn’t realize it takes months of practice to get it right. I practiced a little but it’s going to take a bit for me to conquer it so I had to think of something else.

I cut out a large chevron pattern stencil with my Cricut and used it to draw it onto the top of the carseat canopy. I then sewed over it using a zigzag stitch. I chose the chevron because of the design but you can just do straight lines across which will hold the batting in place better.

I totally forgot to take a photo afterwards but you can see it in the next steps.

Step 5 (Making the straps)

You can use wide ribbon but I used black fabric. You can use the contrasting fabrics you used on the canopy too.

Cut four 10 1/2″ x 3″ pieces.

Face the right sides together for each strap and sew all the way around them, leaving a gap on the side or one end to turn.

Turn them right side out and topstitch around which will close the opening.

We will sew the on after we sew our snaps or buttons on them. It makes it so much easier to do this before sewing the straps onto the canopy.

Step 6 (Sewing on the buttons)

I went with buttons because I don’t have snap pliers.

This should have been super easy. Making buttonholes has never been a problem for me but something is not working right with the buttonhole foot on my new machine. I am going to call the company where I bought it but it was a weekend when I was trying to use it. It seemed like there wasn’t enough space and it would get stuck instead of moving back and forth evenly. I practiced and was only able to complete one buttonhole. I watched videos but those all seemed to have more room underneath the foot than mine does. I was so disappointed but decided to use loops instead.

Choose your buttons. I decided to go with 5 big buttons. One for each strap and three down the front of the canopy.  I just bought small ponytail holders for the loops.

And wouldn’t you know, out of all these buttons, there were not five alike. There weren’t even three alike. There were pairs though.

Place the straps

Sew a button on one end of the strap. On the opposite end and the opposite side, sew the loop on. If you sew a buttonhole it doesn’t matter.

Measure 1 1/2 inches from the top of the front opening. This is where the end of the strap will be placed. Place them 5″ to 6″ apart. Make sure the button side is at the bottom and facing down. Measure 2″ up on the strap and mark two lines where you will sew. Pin the straps onto the canopy and sew.

Place your buttons evenly down the front and hand sew them into place.

Sew the loops into place on the opposite side underneath.

YAY! We’re done!

Funny story – I don’t have an infant carseat carrier but I wanted to take a picture of how it would look on the carrier so we went to Walmart and used one of the ones on display to take the photos. They all had huge tags and were bolted to the shelf but it worked out okay. Nobody even looked at us funny when we were doing it.

I’m super pleased with how it turned out.