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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Car Seat Tents


My new favorite baby gift are these cute car seat tents. I've been seeing them on all kinds of blogs lately and think I would have loved one when my little ones were tiny. And since we needed 3 (yes THREE!) gifts for this week's baby shower/card night, my friend, Dari and I whipped up our own version.


I had originally been trying to decide between these and those great nursing covers. But thought maybe just the nursing cover wasn't such a good idea - too personal, assumed that they were going to breast feed, etc. So my solution was to combine the two ideas. We made these little straps with the clips on the ends (found the clips at JoAnne's, near the buttons) that can go around your neck and hold the blanket up when you nurse. And since the blanket is already attached to the car seat, there's very little chance you'll end up out in public with nothing to cover up with. Genious, no?! ;) I love them!





And here they are all ready to go!

*Update: I didn't want to include a tutorial because there are so many great ones out there for the tents already. However since some of you wanted details I will give you a few.
-I bought 2 yards of fabric for each tent, then cut 4" off the edge. I used the 4" for the straps (one fabric for the straps on the handle, one fabric for the neck strap) and sewed the larger pieces together for the tent itself (pillow style - sew around most of 4 edges, turn it inside out then topstitch around all the edges) so the finished tent is roughly 32" x 43"
-yes, I did use velcro on the straps over the handle. The buttons are just for looks :)
-placement of the straps over the handle: I drew an imaginary line about 4" to one side of the center of the tent (because the part that goes over the feet needs to be a bit longer than the part that covers the head), then placed the straps about 6" (sorry I can't remember exactly, it's been a few weeks since I made these) apart in the center of that imaginary line.

Linking to:




SYS Thurs

9 comments:

Cheri said...

Love the car seat tents! I think I'll make a couple for my sister and niece! On the straps did you do velcro? Also great idea to use them for a nursing shield also!

Audrey said...

SO darling! If I have another baby you can make me one too ;)

The Autocrat: Haley said...

LOVE em!! All of my friends are having babies and I can't wait to get started on these!! So how much fabric did you use and how did you know where to put the loops on the tent? I don't have any kids thus never owning a car seat . .. any help would be appreciated. Yours look fabulous!!

Christine - Tutorial Addict :) said...

This is PERFECT!!!! Thank you SOOO much for posting the tutorial! I think I'm missing one thing though, Where/how do you attach the strap for it to be a nursing cover up? I just wasn't sure how that transition was made. I would LOVE any information you might have! THANK YOU!!!

Christine - Tutorial Addict :) said...

OMGosh! I just saw how the straps attach and I totally got it *blushes* LOL! Sorry bout that ... not enough coffee this morning ;-) This is going to make a GREAT gift!!!

Alayna's Creations said...

Haha Christine! I honestly thought about having my friend pose for a photo to show how the nursing cover worked but thought that would be a little over the top. Glad you figured it out!
Also, I just have to note that I will be doing another round of these soon. My friend Audrey who jokingly posted that if she had another one I could make her one too just annouced that she is pregnant! That makes oh...25 of my closest friends and neighbors that are pregnant right now. Anyone else feel like it's an epidemic?? :)

Unknown said...

Wow! What a lovely creation! This is so awesome!

-TepuiTents.com

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

What a lovely creation you have here. I'm very much impressed with these little car tents. I love the idea and the materials used. I think this is indeed perfect for babies. Thanks for sharing this awesome and wonderful blog.

-TepuiTents.com