homemade shopping cart / high chair cover

When Will was a baby I had a shopping cart cover that saw a ton of use…right up until the day I realized it was all hopeless.  Between rubbing the bottom of his shoes and sucking guard rails, a cart cover was really more of a protection for other children from Will than it was protecting Will from other germy kids.

With Ellie I’m not so worried about germs.  I actually had a waiter at a Chinese food place run up and chastise me.  I had Ellie eating cheerios off the table and he informed me that the table was filthy and I shouldn’t let Ellie eat off it.  (This was mildly disconcerting.)  But there are times when even I feel a little yucky about a particularly sticky high chair, and a shopping cart is much more comfy with some padding, so I’ve taken to using Will’s shopping cart cover again.

Only problem–it’s kinda hideous.  I didn’t have much of a fabric choice with Will’s (I got it online) and it’s all vintage airplanes.  Totally a boy cover.  My bald girl baby needs to be surrounded in girl-ness or else everyone and their mom says what a cute little brother Will has.  So…it was time to make a new seat cover!

I wanted it to be just like Will’s, except with prettier fabric.  Will’s was large enough to cover the entire cart area, and I loved that–it covered the sides and back as well as the handles, so that when he did the ‘I’m a baby and put my mouth on anything within reach’ thing, it was all covered.

I used this pattern, but tossed the pockets.  I also used a lot more padding-I used the same size batting as I used fabric for the front/back.  It’s bulky to carry up to the restaurant/store, but for a skinny tiny baby, it’s nice to have something to pad them in those giant seats (and especially handy if your baby likes to lounge in the cart like mine does)!

I also added my own strap to it.  The cover still has holes for the cart straps, but I have a loose belt that we can use instead.  I loop it around the cart or chair and then back through the cover.  This way she can chew on the straps to her heart’s content without making me cringe (as you can see, I erred on the side of caution when deciding on the length of the strap–there is a LOT of extra that will be coming off)!

And another iphone action shot–this one to show how it works with a high chair (still works, there’s just a lot of fabric over the sides of the chair, which is just fine):

The project took a full afternoon/evening–longer than I had expected, but it was worth it.  I love seeing that happy Nicey Jane floral print when we’re cruising the aisles of Target!