Extream Makeover: Car Seat Edition- The Reveal

I did it! I was nervous and also challenged the whole time, but I love it and I am thrilled with the results. Once I built up the nerve to try and remake the hood, I realized that I wasn't bound to the orange, gray, tan color scheme. I found a large piece of green twill in my stash and bought the polka dot fabric from Joannes.  I recycled all the trim and bias tape from the old seat and just added a bit of homemade bias tape on the hood for detail.



I took lots of pictures of the original seat as the tutorial suggested, but not necessarily the one I needed. Isn't that the way! So from time to time it was a real challenge to figure the best way to sew a certain seam, or bias tape, etc... Still, I found the challenge to be enjoyable. It's not often that I do something completely new.

I used the exact padding on the seat cover so that only the top fabric was changed. I used the black edging from the original car seat that has all the loops, elastic and holes to secure it to the seat. However, I greatly simplified the design on the hood which had a patchwork of clear vinyl, mesh, and several colors. Using the lining as a pattern I made the hood out of four solid pieces.



The vinyl window was a real challenge with my machine until I remembered reading a post long ago about sewing vinyl with tissue paper. It worked like a charm. It was so cool to see how much my sewing skills have grown over my years blogging! However, this took hours and hours to do! I think it was a one time deal for me!

As for the safety issues of a replacement cover. Yes, I am aware that it may void my warranty and that the safety techs who will install it probably will comment on how it is less safe. I can only hope the CHP officer who installs it is as good looking as Ponch or John while he lectures me.

In all seriousness though, I did weigh all my options before choosing to do this. With all parenting decisions we all have to weigh which risks we will worry about and which we can just accept. We live in the heart of LA and unlike many Angelenos, we do very little driving. Very little. And the local driving we do experience is often at *very* low speeds. My husband works from home and his 18 year old car has less than 65,000 miles on it.  The reality is that parking where we live is expensive so we often walk to restaurants and museums. Most of the miles this car seat experiences will be via stroller.

Also, we have a brand new "My Ride 65" that will be our primary car seat once the baby is about 13 pounds or so. The reviews on that car seat (and my SIL's personal experience) state that it's a bit hard to adjust with a tiny baby and great with bigger babies.

So there you have it! My very first sewing project for Baby Girl!