Making a Car Seat Tent/Canopy

I'd seen a car seat tent at our local children's resale store as a new boutique item for about $40! When I saw some links online last week on how to make one yourself, I decided to go for it! Here's how I did it. (Sorry for the confusing directions and limited bad photos, I finally sent my Nikon to be serviced. Yay!)

Normally, you'd just use a yard and a quarter of 2 coordinating patterns of regular cotton fabric, but I decided to use some receiving blankets which we're not using much anymore! They weren't quite long enough to cover the seat, so I had to improvise and use a third one to add some length.

Here are the two blankets I used for the inside and outside of the tent. I put them together on the floor with the correct sides facing in.


I cut off a strip about 4 inches wide and the length of the third blanket.


Then I ironed the rest of the third blanket in half,


and I cut down the fold, to divide the rest of the blanket in half.


I folded the two halves of the brown blanket in half, inside-out, and sewed down the width.


Then I flipped it inside out and found 4 marbles to sew in as weights for the corners of the tent.


Here's where I sewed the marbles into the corners.


I placed the brown half-blankets inside the two full-size blankets and folded in the sides so they wouldn't be sewed down by the machine. I pinned around the blanket and sewed it closed, except for a small portion left to pull it through.


Then I took that leftover strip of brown, and cut it into two 7-inch long pieces. These could have been shorter; they were actually too long. I folded it with the right-side-in and sewed around the two edges, pulling it out the other side. Then I sewed that last seam closed.


And used iron-on velcro strips.


I sewed the strips onto the tent after holding it up to find the right spot, close to the middle. I put them a little too far apart and am going to have to fix this, because it hangs a bit too low. But I thought it turned out pretty cute!


Here's the seat in the stroller at the park this morning, where I did my workout while the little ones played and Mary Clare was in her Faith Formation class at church.


I know those directions were really confusing and could have used some more photos. To make it easier, google "car seat tent" and you can find some better directions when you are using fabric instead of too-small blankets :)

And a safety note: most car seats require the handle to be put back for safety while driving. Also, make sure to watch baby at all times when under the tent! But it's a great alternative to throwing a blanket over the car seat, which never seems to stay put, and could more easily fall on top of the baby. It's also nice for me since my canopy was broken and folding the tent back over the handle makes a nice little canopy!