Booster Seat Cover

Ever since I bought my serger, I can't resist to use it for all my project : ). Don't know why it's seems to threaputic to see the threads goes into making those wonderful hem...

Over the weekends, I did 2 more project. Will share the 2nd project on my next post. I'm in a Creating mode now. Thank God both my sewing machine and serger are working fine, else I'll be pulling my hair out.

My big girl's booster seat was getting very old and dirty. She has been eating, drinking in the car and in the process, the inevitable happened - spilled drinks and food crumbs can be found on that seat!I had always had in mind to sew her a new cover but lack the motivation. Saw Sachiko did a beautiful booster seat cover for her son, I was quite keen to try one myself. Mine was a bit different in that the whole seat was covered with fabric, not only the centre piece. Anyway, I thought I could use some of the beautiful fabric I bought recently to try.

Materials
Cotton fabric - about 3/4 yard (I've used Nicey Jane Picnic bouquet Tangerine for this project. I think I use less than 1 yard.
Cotton batting 16" X 10"
Ikea seat cover (not sure of the material but it provides additional cushion for the middle seat)
Black polyster belt (those that use as bag handle or similar)
Elastic band for holding seat cover to seat
white thread

Instruction
Took apart the old seat cover to get measurement. Gasp! The foam that was inbetween the fabric has disintegrated and it was quite messy with those loose powery foam floating around my dinning table : (. As the fabric is quite old and crummy, I had to make do with rough estimation and guessimation, if there's such word. It's quite ok but there's some adjustment as the original fabric was a stretch knit and I'm using cotton.

Anyway, I draw out the pieces onto a tracing paper and transfer to my fabric. 4 sets of pieces for the centre, outer and inner fabric for the 2 arm rest and the arm rest itself. I've tried to include a 0.5" seam allowance so that I've a bigger margin for error since I can't find the exact measurement.

First I sew the centre piece. I've used the Nicey Jane as top fabric and a regular green cotton from my stash for the bottom which is not visable anyway. In between, I put a nice cotton batting for more cushion. Sandwich them in order of Top fabric (wrong side face up), bottom fabric (right side face up) and batting.  Sew around the edge and leave a 4" gap on top for turning. Sew around the 4 edges after turning the right side up.

Next, I sew the arm rest. Take the 2 outer pieces and sew the short edge together on the wrong side so that it for a continuous loop from side to back to side. Serge the raw edges.

I've used my serger to serge the seam : )

Now, the tricky part. Attach the inner arm rest pieces to the outer piece with right sides facing each other.  Using pins, carefully align the 2 bigger loops together and pin in place. Sew around the loop and turn out to right side facing. You can try this around the booster seat arm rest to check if your measurement is correct.

Turn it to right side facing again and continue below. Take the long stripes which is the arm rest piece, and carefully pin it along the concave part of the curve and all along the curve to the small loop. See below for better illustration. Do this with wrong side face up. This step is very important as it determine how fitted your fabric will be on the arm rest. I did it a few times just to get the shape right. It was painful to pick the seams so try to loop on to the booster seat to check the fit before you sew.

a closer look at the arm rest

If you get this correct, the whole stripe should fit nicely between the outer and inner arm rest. Sew around the edge and turn it right side up and try them on the booster seat again. You should have this.

After you are satisfied with the fit, sew the centre piece to the 2 arm rests. You should also place your centre piece on the booster seat together so you can adjust the seam allowance to sew. Pin and sew on the wrong side.

Sew around the top and side seams to join the centre piece to the arm rest piece. I've also add a edge finish to my booster seat using the black polyster belt for decorative purpose.  To fit the seat cover, sew 2 elastic band under the seat cover to hold them to the seat. I've also inserted the Ikea seat cover underneath to give more cushion. It's removeable so i don't have to worry about spoiling them in the washing machine.

side view

back view

That's it! Hope you can follow the tutorial. How long did I spent on this project? Hmm, 4 hours, including cutting. The sewing was simple but the fitting of the arm rest was arrr....Next time, if I had to do this again, I'll most probably use knit as it is more stretchable and the error for margin is higher compared to using cotton fabric. But the fabric is so nice don't you think?