You can buy shoulder harness pads for kids car seats, but Elliot hasn’t had any and I wanted to make him some to match his carseat. I used scraps and it was a quick and easy sewing project.
Cut 4 pieces of fabric (I used flannel) 6.5″ x 6.5″.
Cut 2 pieces of thin batting, flannel, or fleece, 6.5″ x 6.5″.
Cut 2 applique shapes, backed with Heat’N’Bond.
Match up two fabric pieces (wrong sides together) and sandwich the batting piece in the middle. Pin around all four edges. Press the applique shape in the center and sew down. Sew the 3 pieces of fabric together at 1/4″.
Pin bias tape around the entire square. (I make my own with the Clover bias tape maker.)
Sewing bias tape around corners is not as tricky as you might think. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see how it’s done.
- Pin along the first straight edge and when you come to the corner, fold the bias tape at a 90 degree angle so the top edge of the bias tape matches up exactly with the two perpendicular sides of the fabric. This will leave a triangle of excess bias tape that you can pinch together between your fingers.
- Continue pinning bias tape around the remainder of the straight edges and corners until you’re back where you started. Fold down 1/4″ the edge of the outer piece of bias tape and overlap to make sure a raw edge isn’t showing. (See next photo)
- Using a 1/4″ seam, sew right up until you get to where your stitching line intersects the 45 degree angle of the corner where the excess fabric is. In the above picture, look at the bottom right corner – you want to sew until the stitching line meets the pin in the corner with the yellow head.)
- Stop, backstitch, and cut the threads.
- Start a new line of stitching on the other side of the corner, right where the 45 degree corner angle meets the stitching line.
If you pin carefully in the beginning and make sure the top edge of the bias tape is pinned tightly around the corner with no excess fabric, your corners will come out perfectly!
Close up of how to overlap and finish the binding.
When you’ve sewn the bias tape all around, this is what the corners should look like. Trim the seam allowance, flip the bias tape over to the back side, pin, and stitch in place. When you come to the corner, fold the side you’re pinning in first and then fold the adjacent side over the top to make a 45 degree corner.
With the top of the strap cover facing up, sew a strip of velcro along the entire length of the right side.
Flip the whole thing over so the back is facing up and sew the other half of the velcro again along the length of the right side.
The whole project took about 2 hours and Elliot is so happy to have two cozy little pillows to lay on!
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