Welcome to week six, our final week! This week we finish our car seat covers and wrap up this project. Thank you so much for following along and joining me, I can’t wait to see all of your seat covers!
This week is a great week to jump in if you have an existing quilt you want to upcycle into covers. Check out week 1 for instructions on how to make a paper template and then jump back here for the rest.
This week definitely involves some problem solving that will be unique to each car. I did my best to think of creative ways to attach the covers while still leaving the air bag space open. Overall I think I made something that will work! I’m really proud of these and excited for my husband to enjoy them.
Cutting Out the Pattern
We’ll start by using our paper pattern to cut out the seat cover. I’m usually a rotary cutter person, but for a piece this large I pinned the paper pattern to the quilt and cut it out with scissors. This did require me to return to the floor, which I did not enjoy.
- Center your design. Fold the pattern back and forth to check where the design lands on both the seat base and the seat back, then pin once you’re happy with it. Expect some finagling.
- Pin the template to the quilt. Make sure to keep your pins away from the edge so you don’t accidentally hit them with your scissors.
- Skip the floor if you can. Cutting down there was miserable. Use a raised surface if you have one.
Seat Attachments
Once you have your covers cut out, it’s time to head out to the car. I pinned the seat cover to the headrest and then used safety pins to attach the elastic, ties and knit fabric I used to keep things in place. This will require some creativity! Don’t be stressed if something doesn’t work, there’s likely going to be a little trial and error.
Safety first. I looked up images of deployed airbags for my car’s model and kept the side airbag area open. Research your own vehicle so you know what to keep clear.
Headrest backing. I added a knit backing around the headrest portion. I wanted it to be able to stretch over the headrest and hold the top of the cover in place. An old t-shirt works great for this, and its existing hem saved me some work. Safety pin the shirt to the cover so that it is tight around the headrest and the hem of the shirt goes along the bottom around the back of the headrest.
Elastic. I used a single piece of elastic to go around the back of the seat right above where the airbags are.
Hooks. To help the seat base stay in place I used a couple of pieces of soft elastic with hooks on the end. The elastic stretches down and clips to the bottom of the plastic piece of the seat.
Velcro. For the side next to the center console I wasn’t able to reach down the side like on the door side. Instead I attached some of the leftover backing material with some velcro on it, it goes down along the side of the seat and velcros to some carpet material.
Your covers may look entirely different depending on how your seats are. If you don’t have airbags in your seats you can use a large piece of knit fabric that wraps around the top of the seat. This is how I have it for the covers in my truck and it works great. My truck has leather and this has caused the covers to slip around a bit. I plan to get some of that shelf lining material to help with that. Overall just be prepared to do some creative problem solving and be ready to do some adjusting of the covers before you get in.
Binding
Calculating binding for this project is a little different than a standard quilt. Here’s how to figure it out.
Calculating Binding:
- Measure from the center top of the headrest halfway around to the center bottom. Mine was 68".
- Multiply by 2 for the other side: 136".
- Add 20" for binding tails: 156".
- Multiply by 2 for two seats: 312".
- Divide by 40" (fabric width): 7.8 or 8 strips of binding fabric are needed.
I cut 2 1/4" strips for my binding which equals 18” or ½ yd of fabric needed. Binding is a great opportunity for using up some of your scraps!
For a complete binding tutorial check out our youtube video from the Wyld Whirl quilt series. For this project I’ll just be sharing some quick tips to help make binding a breeze!
Joining strips. Binding strips are sewn on the bias. If you’ve ever sewn them going the wrong way, think about what gets cut off after stitching. This always helps me remember at the machine.
Attaching. Start on a straight area like the seat base, work in small sections, line up the binding with the edge and stitch at ¼”. For tricky curves slow down and pivot when needed to maintain your ¼”.
Joining the ends. Leave a bigger gap than you think you need, and do the join on a straight side, not a curve like I did. To accurately join the ends every time:
- Trim a small piece of scrap binding.
- Lay the quilt out so the right side is up and the bulk of the quilt is going away from you.
- Lay the right binding strip down along the gap.
- Open the scrap piece of binding and lay it width wise in the center of the gap, on top of the right binding strip.
- Lay the left binding strip across the scrap.
- Trim the left binding strip to the right side of the scrap.
- Pull the left binding strip back and trim the right strip on the left side of the scrap.
Your binding strips should now overlap the exact width of your binding.
Hold the two tail up with creasing facing, rotate them in opposite directions (like they’re going in for kiss) and match them up. Line up the two corners and sew on the diagonal in the same way you sewed your strips together.
Finishing. Press the binding from the front toward the back. A fine tip glue applicator is a game changer: run a bead along the edge and fold the binding over so it covers the stitch line. Then stitch in the ditch from the front, using a blind hem foot if you have one. It takes some finagling to get the position right but once it’s dialed in you’ll get a near perfect stitch in the ditch.
Bias or straight? True bias binding has more give around curves and is probably the better choice. I was tight on fabric and used straight, and it worked fine. I’ve heard that binding cut on the bias will hold up to wear better, but I have yet to test this!
Once your binding is on I recommend giving your covers a wash before installing them, it’s important to get that classic quilt crinkle going! I would also recommend using a UV fabric protector spray to help prevent fading. Ultimately they are fabric and will fade over time. But I think a little wear gives quilted projects some character!
That’s a Wrap!
That is it! We did it! I am really happy with how this project turned out. The vision came together and I couldn’t be more pleased. Time will tell if my attachment methods are going to work, but I’m ready to do some more problem solving if they don’t!
Thank you all so much for joining this sew along, I hope these posts were helpful for you! Please, please, please share your seat covers with us! I absolutely want to see them!
