{Tutorial} Hooded Car Seat Blankies

I've been wanting a new way to keep my babies warm on outings.  Infant snow suits are a pain, and pricey when you have twins and need two of them.  Blankets get kicked off every 6.3 seconds.  This blanket solves all those problems and looks cute to boot!

To make your own hooded car seat blankie, you will need:

• 1 meter of flannel for the front
• another meter of flannel for the back
• 1 meter of cotton batting
• thread, scissors, etc.

This project took me a little more than one nap time, but I was making two of them.  If you only have one infant to bundle, I'm sure you can accomplish this while baby sleeps.

Step One: Place you two pieces of flannel with fronts facing together and fold it into quarters.

With a pen, draw on a shape that looks something like this:  

There is no real need for a pattern or measurements.  I didn't even use the exact same shape for each blankie I made.  Just free hand it.  Then cut it out, leaving your folds intact.

The idea is that after you unfold it you will have a shape that looks like this:

Lay your two layers of flannel (front sides still facing each other) out on a piece of batting and pin in place.

Cut around the blankie.  Now you will have two layers of flannel, front sides facing in, and a layer of batting on the bottom, all pinned together.

Sew around the outside with the batting on the bottom.

Leave one of the nubby corner thingies (This is a very technical tutorial, as you can see) open so that you can turn the blankie right side out.

Once you've turned the blankie right side out so that the batting is on the inside, you can turn the open corner into a simple hood.  Fold the corner in half with the fabric that you want to be on the underside of the blankie facing out, like shown below, and sew approximately where I've drawn a line.

Once sewn, you can cut just above your stitches and finish your edge with a tight zig-zag stitch.

You've now created a hood. 

Now you'll just want to sew all around the edges of the blankie to give it a nice finished edge.

To make the opening for the car seat straps, lay the blankie in the car seat the way you want it to sit.  Use a pencil to mark the tops and bottoms holes for the arm straps and each side of the slot for the bottom buckle thingy. (Again, very technical.)

Connect the dots, like so:

And sew around the lines.

Cut on the lines, being careful not to cut the stitches themselves.  Use a rotary cutter if you have one.

Ta-da!

To use your new car seat blankie, buckle the baby in snug.

And swaddle!

Oh, and do you want to know how I got two babies to be reasonably happy to be photographed at the same time?  Easy.  Maple syrup on their soothers!

Lets talk safety.  Some sources claim that blankets like this and many infant snow suits are not safe for use in car seats.  In my understanding, the concern is that any extra bulk prevents baby from being buckled snug enough to protect them in an collision.  I am not a safety expert and cannot vouch for the safety of this or any other baby item.  What I can say is that, as a mother in a cold Canadian climate, I consider the cold to be a significant danger as well, and it is MY OPINION that my babies are safely buckled with these blankets in these car seats. As with any handmade baby item, be cautious and use at your own risk.  

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