Nursing Cover/ Car Seat Canopy Tutorial

I'm baaaack! Did you miss me?

After having my sweet baby I realized that I needed a nursing cover* and car seat canopy. Then I thought "why not combine the two?"  My awesome sister-in-law did a tutorial about a year ago on her blog for a "hooter hider"/nursing cover and I had another tutorial for the canopy in mind. They both give great tutorials and I'm going to just restate what they said to help with the combining.

What you are going to need:

1 1/3 yards of fabric for the body of the canopy/cover

1/2 yard of fabric for the accents

coordinating thread

fabric marking pen/pencil

sew on velcro

1 (1/4 " wide) 16 inch piece of boning

2 metal "D" rings

All seam allowances are 1/4 inches. The parts for the canopy are in blue and the parts for the nursing cover are in green.

STEP 1:
Start the body of the canopy/cover

• Cut the body to have the dimensions of 35 inches wide x 42 inches long. My fabric had a right side up so make sure that you pay attention to if yours does as well when you cut.
• Press a quarter inch seam around each edge and fold over and press again. 
• Sew left, right, and bottom edge of the body.

STEP 2:
Make the straps-

• Cut TWO 6 inch x 9 inches strips
• fold in half long ways (with patterned sides touching) and sew up the long side and along one short side
• turn right side out making sure to poke out the corners with a pen or chopstick (as was used in the other tutorial) and press with seam on side.
• Fold unsewn edges in an sew
• Sew around each edge (a quarter inch in)
• Sew Velcro onto strips so that when piece loops around the handle they attach to each other.
• Cut ONE 4 1/4 inch x 38 inches strip
• cut 12 inches off 
• fold in half long ways (with patterned sides touching) and sew up the long side. On the long piece (piece A) taper one end. Cut excess fabric. See step three here.
• Turn right side out, making sure to poke out the corners/tip with pen or chopstick and press with seam in middle of the back.
• Sew around each edge (a quarter inch in)
• Thread 12 inch piece (piece B) through D rings and fold piece in half. Sew under D rings. See step two here

Nursing Cover straps. Note the tapered end of the longer piece. 

The edges of the straps for the canopy.

STEP 3:

Sew straps on

• On the top edge measure 9 inches from the center and mark.
• Line up the center of the straps(for the nursing cover) with the marks, tuck under the pressed seam so that the straps are pointed toward the bottom of the body, and pin in place.
• Sew the entire length of the top seam
• Thread boning into place between the straps.
• Fold the straps up and pin in place.
• Sew around the edges of the straps.
• For the canopy the straps need to be 19" from the top, 11 1/2 from either side, and have 5 1/2 inches between the straps. It should be about 21" from the bottom. I had to tweak mine a little bit because my car seat is a little different. I would suggest pinning the straps and seeing how they fit on your seat. 

Final view of the cover straps. 

Boning

The finished product.

Final product on my car seat. Isn't it cute? Please ignore my ugly flooring.

 This was a fun and east project that I'm sure I'll get lots of function out of! Oh and I forgot to mention the fabric is an adorable Mother Goose Toile I got at Hobby Lobby.

*My amazing friend crocheted me a beautiful nursing cover I want to keep at the house so it doesn't get all yucky!