Seat Belt Cover – a Tutorial

I need a new seat belt cover! The one I have is, well, disgusting! It looks like it’s lead a hard life.

Yuck!  I just never think about washing it. Kind of like my whole vehicle! I think about it, when I’m getting in the car to go somewhere. It goes something like this:

“Man, I really need to clean out my car!”

Then I head to where ever I’m going, get back, and unload whatever has hitched a ride while I was gone, and say –

“Man, I really need to clean out my car, but I’m too pooped now. I’ll do it another day.”

“Another day” tends to never show up!

Any-who, I decided to make a new seatbelt cover and put the old one out of its misery! Maybe having something nice to look at will encourage me to finally clean out my car. 🙂

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The Materials

These are a fun way to use up leftover fabric.  I could see sewing together bits & pieces & making a scrappy one too.  You can cut two fronts & backs from one fat quarter as well, so you could make a ton of these with a bundle!

Supplies ~>

• A soft minky type for the front
• Some left over fleece {or batting} inside
• A fun sewing print for the inside
• Cut all pieces to 7″ x 10″, which is slightly bigger than the stinky one, to allow for seams.
• Velcro – I used some leftovers I had which were about 1″ long. I will be using one long strip for the next one versus small pieces. That’s just what I had!~> Note: No sticky back velcro! It will gum up your needle and cause major problems! Guess how I know?

  

I used a walking foot and quilt guide to sew the minky fabric to the fleece. This is a thin minky and the fleece just gives it some more body. You can use batting material, but I had the fleece left over from another project.

The walking foot helps keep the minky and fleece from stretching and moving too much. If you don’t have a walking foot, I suggest using quilt batting and cotton fabric, although a walking foot works well for these too.

As you can see, it still moves some! This is just a wavy stitch on my machine.

Sewing it Together

Lay the sewing print, right sides facing, on top of the minky. I used the edge of my walking foot as a guide for the seam.

Don’t forget to leave an opening for turning! This only needs to be about 1 1/2″ to 2″ long, and make sure to back stitch at the ends.

Trim corners and trim seams. I also cut the fleece down shorter to have less bulk in the seams.

Turn it right side out. Push out corners with a crochet hook, knitting needle, or something else with a blunt, pointed end.

Give it a good press with the iron, making sure to tuck under seams at opening.  I think I need a ribbon tab…

This is how I store small bits of ribbon. I wrap it around index cards, folded in half, and secure with plastic paper clips.

This one will do!  I cut a piece about 2″ long and folded it in half.  It’s tucked into the end of my opening.  I just love these clips!

Tab all sewn on!  I used the edge of my walking foot as a guide for top stitching.  The extra stitch at the top is because I got too far away from the edge and didn’t catch my opening seam.

Since this is for me, I just left it there.  : )  Make sure you take this into account, so you don’t make the same mistake as me!

Adding Velcro

I switched to a standard foot to sew on the Velcro.  Stitch about an 1/8″ from the edge of the velcro around all sides.  If the needle is to the left, you can use the center mark on the foot as a guide.  Make sure one part of the velcro is on the outside.

Once you have one side sewn, fold the side over to help align the other side. I usually just eyeball this for something small. If you want it to be more accurate, use a ruler aligned with the edge and mark it.

Finished!  That looks so much better than the old one!

Buh-bye, you have served me well!

Now, about cleaning out the car….hmmm….maybe another day! ; )

If you have any questions, complaints, praises (yes!) please let me know below! Also check out my YouTube video tutorial for more help. : )

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