Piddle Pad and Strap Covers

Weird title, I know, but I could not come up with a better description for my weekly project.  This project was started a few months ago when I picked out fabric for a carseat canopy for my sister-in-law Aimee.  She is having a little girl this month and when it came to gear for her little one, she inherited a lot of great stuff from her sister who has four little boys.  My favorite piece of the gear?  Her Chicco Keyfit carseat in Coventry.  It's a cute pattern, but the blue and white pinstripe did seem a little masculine.  So... Aimee thought a canopy would be a good thing to girl it up a bit.  I agreed, but wanted to expand my sewing repertoire as well.  So... I decided to try out a few new patterns that I had seen on craft blogs.

Here are the cute contrasting fabrics that I picked out.

A side view of the canopy.  I always make it shorter in the back so it doesn't get stuck when releasing the carseat from the base or stroller.

I made a set of strap covers, sort of following this tutorial, but mostly just going by feel.  I used fleece as the liner instead of batting because fleece is more absorbent.  I also sewed two lines where the fabric would fold around the strap cover so that it looked more "finished."

Thanks to Bitty Baby for modeling the strap covers.  In this picture they are on the floral side.  The one below has the striped side.

The other project I did was the piddle pad.  Having previously worked at Babies'R'Us I had seen these carseat savers often.  They are designed for potty training kids, but also marketed to moms with babies.  When the diaper blows out, rather than cleaning the whole seat pad, just remove the piddle pad and wash it.  So... using their basic design of look and information I found on cloth diapering, I created my own carseat piddle pad.  The top layer is cotton, middle is fleece, bottom is PUL. (water proof fabric)

Here is the piddle pad.  It is larger than the ones online, but I thought it would be good to cover up more of the blue on her seat.

Oh, and notice that cute carseat modeling my latest sewing projects?  That's ours.  No, this is not any sort of announcement.  It was just a super great price ($60) and I can use it for modeling my projects if I ever decide to sell them on Etsy or something.  It did not come with the matching stroller, but that's okay.  I'm thinking I'll probably want this one, or maybe this one someday anyway.

My steal of a deal carseat.  I know it's uber pink.  But I can order new covers from Chicco if I have a boy first.

Challenge of the week you ask? Oh, hmm... Sew something for a baby? No, that seems way to specific. Branch out a bit. Rather than making the same chicken salad sandwich you make for lunch every day, try it with some raisins today.

Or... if you love baby stuff as much as I do, try picking out some fabric that you would want to use to make a set of these yourself. We could do it together! It would be a blast!