Free Pattern: Baby Car Seat Strap Covers

I was recently asked to make some REMOVABLE and WASHABLE car seat strap covers. So I decided to create a free pattern while making them in case you'd like to make some too!

When my babies were still in their infant car seats I remember trying to use the strap covers that came with the seat. Talk about nasty, icky, gross! Since they were sewn together you had to remove the entire car seat cover and then take the straps apart to get them off and wash them. So...guess who didn't wash them very often? And as you know...babies drool and spit up so quickly the strap covers were super yucky.

Having removable and washable strap covers is such a no-brainer. I made two different styles and have included instructions for both types. You can make them with Velcro or snaps, and can use decorative bias tape or use a completely sewn edge.

Materials Needed:
Woven Fabric (scraps or fat quarters work well)
Interfacing (I would suggest medium or lightweight)
Double-folded Bias Tape (if you're using that option)
Velcro or Snaps
Thread
Pattern (download it here)

Steps:
Download the pattern, print it, and cut out the pattern pieces. Then cut out your fabric and fuse the interfacing to it according to the manufacturer's directions. (note: if you're using a minky dot like I did you'll need to be very careful ironing it so you don't crush the dots - don't use very high heat)

For Bias Tape option:
Place your fabric wrong sides together and begin wrapping the edges with bias tape. You'll want to sew close to the open edge of the bias tape all the way around leaving about a two inch length of bias tape at the end. Fold that over and sew it down (it should be folded to the inside of the strap cover.

Then add your Velcro to the ends and either sew it down or use no-sew Velcro. (I recommend sewing it down so it stays put when you wash it.) Then fold over and you're done!

For the Snap version:
After fusing the interfacing to your fabric, mark the snap placement from the pattern and attach the snaps per the manufacturer's instructions. (make sure you attach the snaps so they are facing the right way)

Once the snaps are attached, place your fabric right sides together and sew around them leaving a 2 inch gap. Trim the curves and turn the piece right side out. You can hand or machine sew the opening. Press and you're done!

In less than an hour you can make several pairs of these adorable and soft strap covers for your baby! They simply fit and faster around the strap and can easily be removed and washed. Plus they're so cute! The fabric and color combinations you can use are endless.
Enjoy!

DIY Concrete Counters

As promised yesterday, here's a continuation of the front porch progress with a tutorial on how to make your own concrete countertops.

There are other tutorials out there on how to do this, but we kind of made up our own way of doing it. If you're going to tackle a similar project I recommend you look at several methods and decide what fits your style best. (And while you have the concrete mixed, check out some other things you can made as accessories with it.)

The first, and probably most important step in making your own counters is to measure accurately. We had a little jog that we had to account for in the shape of the counters and each side was slightly different in measurement so the forms had to be adjusted accordingly. Measure carefully!

After that you have to gather your materials. You'll need concrete (we used a countertop mix from Menards).

You'll also need melamine boards, found in any home improvement store (often used for shelving). The key is to find smooth boards if you want a smooth finish.

You'll also need to figure out what you want to use as a support within your counters. You don't want the counters to crack so you need something structural and sturdy inside them. You can buy rebar or make your own. Michael originally planned on making his own, but lucky for him his wife is a genius (ha!) and suggested taking a shortcut with some leftover items we had in the garage.

We used this as the support within the concrete: Can you guess what it is?

It is a shelf bracket from some old closet shelving we used to have. To be honest, I am not a fan of this type of shelving and prefer wood shelves over the metal systems. We sold most of the shelving we had but there were a few miscellaneous pieces left over and now they're buried in our concrete counters!

Basically, Michael cut the shelving down and tied it with plastic zip ties to hold it together. He added some bent pieces of metal that sat on the edge of the forms and enabled the shelving to be suspended in the middle of the concrete (you don't want it settling to the bottom of your form since it is the top of your counter).

For the forms themselves, remember that the bottom of your form will become to the top of your counter when you're finished. So cut a board slightly wider than the counter you need and then tack side boards around it to get the depth you want.
You'll also need to use some silicone caulk to fill in the gaps so your edges are nice and smooth. This edging tool was handy for spreading the caulk evenly inside the form.

Once your forms are ready, it's time to mix the concrete. A big plastic bin worked well for mixing. Just follow the instructions on the bag. We started out mixing it with the mixer attachment on a drill, but switched to using a shovel. Much easier.

After pouring the concrete into your forms, you can use a sander on the edge of the form to vibrate the concrete and bring the air bubbles out.

Lots of air bubbles.

We wanted to make sure the forms were completely filled, which meant overfilling them a little. We scraped the top with a board to make sure they were level with the top of the form. Warning - this is a super messy process.

After allowing the concrete to dry (we waited 48 hours) you can release the counter from the form using pliers to pull out the metal pieces that hung over the form and then breaking off pieces of the form.

Now here's the most nerve-wracking part...turning it over to see how the counter looks. Overall, we were thrilled with our first attempt at making these. You can see below that there is one part where the silicone wasn't smoothed down (oops), but you don't notice it in the installed version since there is caulking around the whole counter.

There were more bubbles in the top than we expected, but since it's an outdoor counter it's not a big deal. In the future I think we'd use the sander on the frame for a longer time. We sanded the whole top to make sure it was nice and smooth and then it was time to install it.

It fit beautifully! Like it was made for the space. :)  The last step was to caulk around the edges of the stone and concrete so everything was sealed well.

We decided not to seal the concrete top because we tossed around the idea of coloring it a little in the future. Maybe we'll end up sealing it...not sure yet.

Other than the concrete top, the final thing we had to do to finish the front porch was trim out the bottom of the columns. They turned out great!

And here's the before and after again:

It is so great to finally have ONE whole area finished. I can't wait for the holidays this year so I can decorate out here. We added outlets on the outside since we didn't have any before so I can actually have lights outside! Can't wait!

a porch in the making

We have ONE area in our entire house that we are declaring FINISHED...the front porch. And wow it feels great to have a big project done. It's the 'hello' you see when you get to our house and it has come a llllloooonnnngggg way.

We liked the look before, but soon after we moved in the front step cracked apart and we had to patch it 'temporarily.' We also quickly discovered how annoying it was to have such a tiny step leading to the front door. You almost had to step on the ground to open the door. Such a pain with groceries or babies in hand.
The other annoyance about the way the house was is that there was nothing covering the front door. So if you needed to get in while it was raining, you got wet. Not very inviting.

So, if you have followed the blog for a long time, you'll remember when I found this inspiration picture (at the end of the post). Then I used Photoshop to mock up what I wanted the front to look like when it was done...and the process got started.

The first step was to build the roof extension over the front door. This was done at the same time the new roof was put on (the day I went into labor with baby #4...big day!).

Then, a year or so later, it was time to rip the old siding off of the house and put the new hardi plank/shake siding on.

It was looking better but needed to be painted. After everything was painted we could put up the lights and a mailbox again! We felt great about that progress...but still had more to do because we still had to deal with that tiny step.

We had gotten a bid from a contractor to build out the front for us, but we're gluttons for punishment and decided to diy it. We also couldn't justify spending thousands more when we had already paid so much to remodel every other part of the whole house. Not that the porch was cheap to diy...but definitely cheaper than hiring it out. (We fit right in at Remodelaholic.)

We would have loved to make the entire thing out of concrete but there were two problems with going that route. One is that it was SO expensive $$$. The other problem was that since our house is so old (built in the 1930s) we didn't want to add that much weight to our basement walls. We could have sured them up but it would have been extra $$$ again. Instead, we decided to build a 'deck' and we're really happy with that decision.

Holes were dug and filled with concrete for the wall and step footings.

Then Michael built a platform and initially covered it with plywood while we figured out what material we wanted to use as decking.

The side walls were framed up.

And then we found the Trex decking we wanted. We love Trex. Remember this when we wanted a Trex fence and the materials were going to be $19,000?? Well, we finally got our Trex, in a much smaller area and a MUCH smaller price tag.

Then a year went by again because we chose stone for the side walls that we didn't like...returned it...then our stone store messed up our order and we had to wait a whole winter to get the project moving again. But we finally got to add the stone.

The last step in the process was to make the concrete tops for the side walls. I'll be back tomorrow with all the concrete details.
Whew...sorry about the long post but a lot has happened in this little area over the past 3 years. :)

a painted bear

I recently stumbled across a free printable bear print from Oana Befort and her darling diy series on making shirts for kiddos. She has graciously shared the art for this bear, as well as a cat, apple, fox, and a bird. SO cute!

Henry has had this little white t-shirt in his closet that's really too small for him. It was the perfect canvas to try out some fabric painting and I'm in love with the results.

The process is really simple. First you just print out the design from Oana's site. Because this is a 2T shirt (on the small side of 2T), I scaled the print by 80%. Then place it under the front of the shirt and lightly sketch the design with a pencil.

After putting a piece of cardboard inside the shirt (to protect it from paint soaking through), I started painting the edges first, then filled in the rest of the design with a paintbrush dipped in my fabric paint.
After letting it dry, Henry put it on and away he went. Now I remember why it's so frustrating to make clothes for him...the child will NOT sit still long enough for me to get a decent picture (and he is prone to spill things which is what happened immediately after these pictures were taken). Oh well. At least he looks cute in this simple diy shirt.

Hello...and goodbye

Remember my front door?

Well I recently had a little fun with the back of the front door too. Hello...and goodbye.

I saw the goodbye vinyl decal on GroopDealz a couple weeks ago and thought it would be perfect. It was yellow and just the right size. So now, whether coming or going from my home you'll see a friendly little message.

Do you have anything written on your front door?
And looking through archives I found a little nugget to share from Remodelaholic - yellow doors.

building rock walls

F.i.n.a.l.l.y the weather has cooperated enough for us to begin putting the rock on the exterior of our new front porch area. We bought the stone last October...just in time for the weather to turn nasty. Good timing, huh?

As a reminder, here's a before and after picture of what the front overhang looks like:

We have always planned on putting stone on the side walls between the columns, and also on the front of the steps. Here's the process we used:

First, the hubs measured the walls where the stone would go and sketched out the dimensions on our driveway. Then started putting a pattern together. We did this to make sure we had enough stone and because each box of stone had different pieces. We tried to stay away from the ones that had a yellow tone to them so going through the work of creating the pattern first let us pick and choose the best pieces.

Henry loved watching, and would occasionally sneak out of the house and steal the chalk! 

The next step was to mix up the mortar in small batches and start applying the stone to the concrete board. It's almost like buttering bread....you know, if you buttered bread with a trowel.

On the first side he started at the top to make sure the spacing was even. But once he knew the stone was easy to cut or break when needed, he started from the bottom on the other sides. It's much easier to start on the bottom and work your way up, than start at the top and work your way down.

The kids loved watching. They wanted to help, but mean mommy and daddy said 'no.'

Once all the stone was in place and had set, we got a big 'pastry bag' type thing at Lowe's and filled it with grout. The mixed grout went into the bag and could be applied directly in the spaces. Once each space was full, he went back through and smoothed out the grout to make it look nice. The bag worked surprisingly well and made cleanup a whole lot easier since there was no need to scrub extra grout off of the tile.

So far I only have gotten a few pictures of the outside at night...so it's hard to see. But we love the difference the stone makes on the front. MUCH better!

There are still a few things left to finish. Here's the 'to-do' list:
- make concrete tops for each wall
- caulk around the edges of the stone (we didn't grout around the far edges so that the stone could expand as needed - the caulk will be better for that)
- finish the trim around the bottom of the columns
- then someday we'll get around to doing a new sidewalk and make the landscaping look pretty

And I want to say a 'welcome' to Remodelaholic readers. To see more from our whole-house remodel, click here.

chalkboard

Do you have a chalkboard somewhere in your house? It seems like most people do now. We had a large frame hanging around forever and I finally realized it would be perfect for a chalkboard and would give me a place to keep a calendar up. The kids love seeing what day it is and look at it constantly.

Here's the big empty frame:

I bought it (probably 4ish years ago) at Hobby Lobby when they had a big frame clearance. It's hard to tell how big it is until you see it with the kids. It's bigger than them!

Michael cut a piece of mdf to fit the frame opening and then I painted it with several layers of chalkboard paint.

Then we used 'glazier's push points' from the hardware store to hold the mdf into the frame. You can buy framing hardware to do the same thing in the framing section of any frame/craft store, but these are WAY cheaper and basically the same thing. They are for holding windows into wood casings. You basically just push them into your frame with a screwdriver. 

Then 'season' the chalkboard part by rubbing chalk across the entire surface before actually drawing anything. I'm no artist, and this is a pretty terrible picture, but we put our calendar on this giant chalkboard so everyone can see what day it is. It sits in the dining room on top of the fireplace Michael made and is right in the center of all the action in our house.

Now I kick myself for not putting it up sooner. Seriously, why did I let this frame sit around for so long when a project like this is so easy and quick to do?

I've seen lots of beautiful chalkboard art and get inspired to try drawing something that looks much better than the calendar. But I can't seem to get any of the 'tricks' to work. Some say you can dip your chalk in water to get darker, less dusty, lines. I've tried it and my chalk won't work at all if it's wet. If you know of any other tricks to try I'd love to hear them!