Car seat bag tutorial

Finally! I made this bag as a present back in August and now I'm finally posting it. Why? Because it is full tutorial and writing it is bigger job than making it was! But here it is, full tutorial how to make car seat bag for a baby. And not just any bag, this one is adjustable to almost any baby seat, it doesn't matter if the car seat has three point or five point belts. It is great during winter or cold weather overall, no need to wear thick clothes for the baby when you can wrap him/her in a warm sleeping bag. Plus, it is even safer for the babies as you can fasten the seat belt more securely when there are less clothes on the way!

Let's start with what you need:

Fabric for the cover

Insulation fabric e.g. fleece, wool or other padding

Lining, something soft and comfortable e.g. velour, any knit fabrics

Fleece is affordable and rather warm but one warning; having too many layers of it means that the bag doesn't breath at all and that's definitely not good for the baby! Fleece is purely plastic. I used new fabrics for all of the layers as it was a present but you can easily make car seat bag with recycled materials too. Just take padding out of old duvet, use old felts etc for the lining and for the cover almost anything goes, old curtains are always great!

For each layer you need fabric 90cm x 92cm (width x height, inludes seam allowance)

Zip 60-65cm

Metallic snaps

Small pieces of fusible lining

Figuring out how to make a sleeping bag is rather easy but figuring out how to make it suitable for any car seat, wasn't. I didn't have any idea if the family who I was giving it to, had three point or five point car seat for the baby and obviously I couldn't ask so I had to go the harder way. 

For car seat with three point belt you can make pretty simple bag; just make button holes for the places that the belt goes through and that's it. You can still easily remove the bag with baby on it without waking him/her up.

I could have made button holes for the five point seat belts too but then you would need to remove all the seat belts from the car seat before you can use the bag or remove it. Not very easy and it would easily become unused.

The other problem was the measurements! I found tutorials for bags like these but no one mentioned where the belts should go, only the rough measurement of the whole bag. And I had just managed to get rid of our baby car seat. Luckily, I belong to couple great Facebook sewing groups so I asked there for few different seat measurements. It's amazing how you get an answer there in minutes, no matter when you ask it! And here they are, the measurements I used.

Measurements are cm. This is also your pattern, the top is where the baby head comes to and the sides come together with a zip. Down in the middle you see number 22, that's the height from the bottom for the first button hole for the seat belt that goes between the baby's legs. On top you see small number 3, that's the distance between the line marked in the picture (top of the zip) and the bigger button hole. Makes no sense? Check couple more photos and it starts making sense (hopefully).

Here is the drawing of the giant button hole for the bag! Yes, the bag has one "small" button hole (the one on the bottom) and two large ones. The button hole on the bottom is 8cm wide, should be enough for almost any baby car seat. If it's not, just make it wide enough. Then measure 5cm to the left and right and 5cm up (drawn with black colour) and mark your big button holes. The button hole is 38cm long and after the turn point on the top, 5cm wide. So two large L-holes. The blue markings are for the snaps, I used three on both sides, distances as shown in the picture. 

For now, just mark these on the reverse side of the fabric. I recommend using something more permanent than chalk as you need these later on, just make sure you aren't using anything that shines through or spreads in the washing machine.

I used pencil as you can (hopefully) see here.

Make a tab for the zip for easier sewing and also great if you don't have a zip with desired length.

Then prepare the snap "flaps". I really like this fabric but it is horrible to take a picture out of it if you are trying to show something! Follow the green arrows and you should see what I mean. The flaps are used to close the L-button holes so both ends are on different sides of the button hole. I thought it is better that the end with the snap is on the outer side to make the bag more comfortable for the baby.

edit. I added a drawing about the snap flaps as the photo wasn't very clear. (The drawing is a bit wonky but hope you get the idea...)

Cut 6 pieces of fabric, approximately 5cm x 8cm (width x height). Cut out a bit smaller pieces out of fusible lining (you don't need it in seam allowances), iron them on.

Iron also small pieces of fusible lining on the cover fabric, on the places where the snap goes and also to where the flap is going to be attached.

Sew the flaps. I tried to make them tube first but way too narrow to turn them right way! Much easier to sew the other end with right sides facing, turn and fold lengthwise, fold and iron the two longer edges, stitch over.

Tools I had for fastening the snaps; pliers by Prym and usual pliers from tool box to tight them a bit. Prym pliers are great for fastening the snaps but if you don't secure the snaps with the other pliers, they tend to come of. 

I usually press the snap on every side like this after using the Prym pliers:

If you are working with delicate fabrics, it would be good idea to use a small piece of fabric between the pliers to prevent them from harming the main fabric.

Sew the snap flaps on their place. I sew them with small zig zag and added extra piece of fabric on back side. Attach the other half of the snaps on the other side of the button hole soon-to-be. Use extra layer of fabric here too, else the snap will just come through the fabric.

In the next steps you want to see where the button hole comes, so sew around your markings, just with long straigh stitch. Remember to sew exactly where the button holes are going to be, you won't have any other markings visible later on.

I made the top of the bag from different fabric, now is the time to sew the bottom and the top together. Iron that seam with seam allowances open (1.). Sew the top seam and iron again seam allowances open (2.).

Sew also the top seam of the linings. If the fabrics you are using are very thick, you can sew them separately, I sew my linings together, easier to handle. Place the lining against the main fabric right sides facing.  I have to say the clips work here perfectly! The pins always makes the thick parts a bit wonky. Sew around the hood, from one corner to another. Leave the long sides open.

Turn, iron and stitch over.

For the next step make sure that the layers stay put. I used clips but if you don't have them, baste stitch around the open edges.

Sew around the button hole marking stitch using regular straight stitch. This is to prevent the fabrics stretching when making the button hole and it goes through every layer so it also keeps them still.

Sew the button hole following the markings made before, mind the snap flaps.

Remove the baste and support stitches when visible.

Sew the zip onto the lining, fold and iron the seam allowance of the top fabric.

Pin/clip and sew.

Sew the bottom. I chose to sew it so that zip is on the other side but you can also place it in the middle, depending what kind of form you want for the bottom of the bag.

Almost ready!

Cut open the button hale. Be very careful! You don't want to ruin your hard work now.

This is how the belts come through the bag. Thanks to the big button holes and snap flaps you can pretty easily place and remove it from the car seat or pram, even with the sleeping baby (at least if he/she is heavy sleeper and don't mind you moving him/her around!). Just remember that there are only snaps on the back, they won't support the baby's weight even for a second so always support the baby like usually.

I have to say that if making the bag was a real piece of work with figuring out the sewing order, so was writing this blog post! It has been few months when I sew the bag so trying to remember every step was quite hard. This tutorial is by far the most complex in this blog but I'm glad I managed to write it all down!

I hope you enjoy it and find some use for it. Of course if I missed something or there's something unclear, just ask.

Baby gifts

Finally for a reason why in the last post I said that I have had only something small here in the blog. At least those feel small to me; the belt didn't take that long, the curtain was needed and fun but nothing special in it, the top for my daughter was just basic sewing etc. No tutorials, no interesting upcycles... That's how it feels to me, I have set some standards for myself and all of these are below those standards. Maybe not the belt, that was actually quite cool to understand you can make one yourself!

Our kids got a new cousin in August and now that they are a bit older and I actually have some sewing time I almost lost my head when thinking about what to make as a baby gift! What I ended up is less than half of what I was thinking of!

I mean, there are so many things you can sew for a baby and all of them are just way too cute to miss. And then all those little clothes! You don't need to think if the baby wants to wear them as you have to when the kids have an opinion of themselves. Just know something about how the mum feels about baby clothing (yeah, usually it is still a mum who decides about this...) and you are good to go.

As a new baby present I ended up doing this:

Car seat bag for an autumn baby so she can travel comfortably in a car during the cold weather. My daughter's Baby Born-doll is showing how it works; put a baby inside, close the seat belts, zip the bag. During the winter the babies need warm clothes and that means also thick clothes, especially when you compare to the size of the baby. It's more comfortable when you can close the seat belts over less clothing than over thick ones.

Also you can open this easily in the car when it is warm enough as well as for example in the grocery store. You don't want to wake up sleeping baby, at least if you have some grocery shopping to be done. So, just take your baby in her car seat, open the car seat bag and she can continue her sleeping undisturbed.

I didn't know what kind of car seat the family had and obviously couldn't ask so I made it fit to any car seat. Just asked some measurements from other parents and made it easy to use even with 5-point seat belts. It needed some thinking over but I'm quite happy with the result. There will be full car seat bag tutorial later on.

Good thing with the bag is that you can use it just like any other sleeping bag in a pram with belts too, it should work with those as well. I hope the family finds lots of use for this one.

The little girl got a name yesterday and was baptized, also an occasion to bring gifts. Naturally, self made through and through from us.

Worry eater of course, small baby boots, self made card and because they were hard to wrap self made present bag too. For the boots I made pattern myself out of the ones our daughter got as a baby. Also tutorial for those coming up and I try to make printable pattern too but we will see.

These were fun to make and even though they aren't really upcycles (except the worry eater of course), I will share the tutorials here too. I wish I had known how easy it is to make cool baby accessories myself when our kids were babies.

The new families often have tight budget, new baby needs so many things and here are couple things you can make yourself and with very low budget if you want to. Just upcycle some fabrics you already have and you have something that costs tens of euros in the shops! I will share some tips for doing this when making the tutorials.

About compost

It is this time of the year again, fallen leaves everywhere. We have few birches, one maple tree and one larch, the kind that drops its needles before winter. Not to mention some willows and other bushes. So there are more than enough leaves to rake! I thought it would be good idea to give you a glimpse to our backyard - by showing our compost system.

First I have to say that even though I like to upcycle and recycle as much as I can, I'm not a saint. I buy plastic bags way too often, we eat meat, we have a car, we have electric heating system etc. Overall usual family with usual things, even though I dare say we produce much less trash than some families. Anyway, there is one thing that is taken care of almost all the time and that is the compost.

That is also because we actually use the soil that comes out of it on our vegetable patch. It is so good for the vegetables that there is no sense in NOT using it. And of course, it's fully organic. Doesn't got a penny either. Our garden has some flowers but very few and that's only because the previous owner had planted them. We have moved some, removed some but left few that are easiest to take care of. Instead our small garden is full with vegetable patch, berry bushes and apple trees. When I say full, it means that there isn't really space for more plants but there is of course space for other things you need the garden for. Trampoline for the kids, barbeque etc. Just so that you don't think of some fully grown garden where you walk only under the apple trees or something. :D

The vegetable patches are more of a hobby of my husband, he likes to take care of it. Build new things, try new vegetables, things like that. We had some chili growing outside too this year, mad to do it here without greenhouse really and we didn't get really any. Maybe next year?

He also works with plants, sort of. He works for Naturvention (new Finnish company making active green walls that clean the indoor air, check it, it's really new and interesting innovation) and he sometimes brings soil home from work.

It is good combined with the compost. Naturvention buys the plants in pots with soil but the green walls don't have any soil so even the roots clean the air instead of producing "allergifying" microbes. Very clean, very fresh. The soil is washed out of the plants and is of course taken to be composted. Of course, if someone needs it, they can bring it home. That only makes sense, why take good soil to be composted and packed to plastic bags (again!) if you can use it right away? With this and our compost we hardly need to buy any soil.

Back to our compost. The process has three steps.

1. warm compost

Also known as "food compost" where all the leftover food goes. Potato and onion peels, leftover fruit parts etc. Also the leftover food goes here. If it has to be thrown away, it is at least doing good job here!

This compost stays warm also during cold weather. It is just a ball of plastic but the process of composting keeps it warm. It only freezes when it is actually winter -15-20 degrees Celsius but starts working again when the weather gets warmer.

When the warm compost is full it is emptied and becomes step 2.

2. Leaf compost/step 2 compost

As you can see, there are leaves, grass and branches. This is the place where all the organic garden waste goes. It doesn't smell or attract rats or birds so it can be composted just like this. It also composts pretty fast, faster than food waste anyway. The compost is like enormous lasagne; garden waste and stuff from food compost are in layers. Doesn't smell as the garden waste keeps it quite dry and the garden waste composts faster when the food compost moisturizes it.

Now it is best left alone, just let the nature do its job. Takes year or two before it is fully composted.

3. Fully composted soil

Like this:

This was before a pile like that in the previous photo but is now pure soil that can be used in the garden just as it is. When this pile is used, we can empty the food compost here and the circle starts again from the beginning.


How about you, do you own a compost, have thought of getting one, don't have a place for one or just have never gotten around getting one?

DIY Belt

I have noticed that I have some funny ideas what you can sew and what you just have to buy. Sometimes they don't make any sense. For example I just ordered pile of fabrics to make new outdoor clothes for kids without any hesitation that I couldn't make them. But I have never actually considered making myself a belt. Why? I have absolutely no idea, it is just one of those things that you get so used to buying that you never think twice of it.

How did I end up making one now? One word: need. I needed new belt and I knew what they would cost in the shops, also I didn't want to go to city just to buy one. So I re-thought my ideas about making belts and simply did one. Just in case you have had the same weird idea, here is a complete tutorial how to make a belt. You don't even need any fancy or expensive tools!

You need:

fabric for the belt approximately 10 cm x 150 cm (depending the size you want the belt to be)
fusible interfacing equal amount
buckle
4 eyelets with parts to fasten them (usually come with the eyelets)
hammer
scrap wood

First choose your fabric. Of course recycled fabric works well here; table cloths and curtains are usually bit stronger fabric and will make beautiful belts too. I recommend not to use anything too light but it doesn't have to be very heavy either as you will support it with fusible interfacing. I used old, cotton table cloth.

Then you of course need the buckle. Where do you get them for free? From old belts of course! If you don't have any, go to second hand store and you are bound to find one for cheap. Or ask your friends, usually someone has broken or too small belts which you can break and take the buckle. Nothing breaks those metallic ones, usually it is the fabric/leather that suffers the time first. Also if you find a belt from second hand store with beautiful buckle but the belt is too small/big, just buy it and re-make it!

I had mine from a belt that I bought together with pants. The pants I have discarded long time ago but luckily I kept the belt. The belt is twined and not very usable as it stretches in use so I cut the buckle out.

Did I throw away rest of the belt? Of course not, you never know when you need it...

Measure the length of the belt and add about 20 cm extra + seam allowances. I added 3 cm to other end and 4 cm to other end. Then check the width you want to use. I recommend making as wide belt as possible. I took the jeans I was going to use it with and measured from there. I ended up cutting 7 cm + seam allowance wide.

Then cut the fusible interfacing to cover the whole belt, minus the seam allowances. Iron it on.

I wish I had a press to do that, it would be so much faster and shoulder friendly than with just an iron!

Iron the long edges turning the seam allowances in and also the other end of the belt (the one with 3 cm seam allowance).

Fold in half, iron.

As you can see, other end is folded in, other end is raw. The raw end (with 4 cm seam allowance) is the one that will be attached to the buckle so no need to fold it just now. Stitch around.

Next step are the eyelets. Here are the tools for this step:

Scrap wood is just working surface, it doesn't matter what you use, just make sure it won't be needed because hammering the eyelets on their places will cause marks on the wood.

Fold the fabric around the buckle and press with your fingers so you can see where the fabric folds:

See the red circle? That's marking the spot I marked for my first eyelet. It is on second fold covering the buckle and the eyelet here is needed so that part of the buckle is able to come through. Like this:

The package of eyelets I had, said that you could make the hole with the eyelet itself by hammering it on the fabric:

My fabric with double interfacing inside was too hard for it and all that I managed to make was a mark. But I used that mark to cut the hole with scissors.

See how I have drawn small crosses inside the circles? That's how I cut the holes. Be very careful, the hole has to be tight, if it is too big, the eyelet won't stay and the fabric will start fraying in use. It isn't even matter of millimeters, it is a matter of parts of millimeters between success and complete failure. Use the smallest scissors you have got. BE VERY CAREFUL!

Cut and try if the eyelet goes through, if it goes through there is no need to cut more, if not, just very careful small snip and try again.

Here too eyelets are through and you can see hole for the third one.

Add the other part of the eyelet:

Place the lower fastening tool under the eyelet and the whole thing on your scrap wood. Place the taller fastening tool on top of it all:

Start hammering. It won't go with one or two hits (of course you might have more muscles than I have, then it might), just try it and see if the top part of the eyelet is already bent enough to keep the eyelet still. Try pulling it and turning it to see if it is completely fastened. If it is proceed to the next step, if not, hammer some more.

Fasten the buckle:

Now your diy belt is almost ready. It can even be ready if you don't mind part of the belt hanging or you made it just the right length. If not, make a loop for the end of the belt:

Stitch and fasten to its place. First measure where you want it to be by closing your belt:

Stitch.

Ready!

I try to think new ways to upcycle fabric and this belt was definitely one! It would be nice to hear if you have any no-reason ideas what you can't make yourself? Have you overcome them or are they just in planning - if doable at all?