Car Seat Poncho

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a very merry Christmas!  Ours was wonderful.  It was the first year that we gave Santa gifts to Lyla and I had no idea it would be so fun to play Santa.  Today I am posting on a sewing project that has been such a wonderful solution to a very annoying problem. Last winter Lyla was still in an infant seat so a blanket over her, a hat, and the car seat canopy that I made which you can read about here were enough to keep her warm with out a coat.

She has been in a convertible seat since last spring and although I am relieved to not have to lug her heavy infant seat around winter has made it much more annoying.  It isn't safe for children to wear puffy coats while buckled in their car seat so you have to take their coat off to put them in and then put it back on when you arrive at your destination.  This is time consuming and I worry about her being cold in her car seat if the car isn't quite warmed up when we get in.  I saw a post from one of my favorite blogs on a car seat poncho and I knew that I was going to make one.  The blog is called Reality Daydream (formerly known as Sawdust and Embryos) and here is the tutorial for the fleece-lined hooded poncho.

Before I talk about the alterations that I made for my version of this poncho, I wanted to talk a little bit about the author of this blog, Bethany.  First of all her story about her struggles with infertility is so touching and real.  I found her blog right around the time that I had been diagnosed with a condition that I believed might prevent me from having children of my own so I really identified with her struggles and found hope in her successes.  The second thing about her that is amazing is that she is ridiculously creative and talented.  I don't think I have seen any other blog that has so many original and unique ideas as her blog.  She is truly inspiring so I encourage you to take a look at her blog if you haven't already.

Okay so back to my version of this poncho.  I really dragged my feet on this project because I knew that one layer of fleece wouldn't cut it in North Dakota.  So I ended up tucking an extra layer of fleece in between the outer layer and main fleece layer.  For my outer layer I used a grey suiting fabric from Joann Fabrics.  The fleece is also from Joann Fabrics.  I cut the other layer of fleece slightly smaller than the suiting fabric layer and sewed the hem of the suiting fabric right over that extra layer of fleece.

I also added snaps to her poncho partly because I love my KAM snaps so much.  After sewing my three layers together I sliced an opening on one side of my circle.  I took some pink grosgrain ribbon and pressed it in half.  I then sewed the ribbon over the raw edges that I had created by cutting the circle.  Next I added 5 snaps. I didn't measure them out, just eyeballed it.  I decided to add grosgrain ribbon to the neckline instead of hemming it just for aesthetic purposes.

This awful picture is just to give you an idea of how it works in the car.  I drive a small Ford Focus so this was the best shot I could get ha ha.  The back of the poncho drapes over the back of the car seat. It is easy to buckle the child in underneath the front of the poncho.

This poncho has been seriously amazing.  Lyla loves wearing it (she even cried when I took it off of her the first time because she wanted to keep wearing it).  It has made going places so much easier.  I have also gotten a ton of compliments on it at daycare.  One mom even said that I should make them to sell because she would buy one!  This isn't my best sewing work however.  I would need way more practice on these before I would be confident enough to sell them but it was nice to hear anyway. Thanks for reading this post!  Next up on the blog: Lip Balm Christmas Cards using my Silhouette Portrait.

Mounting Photos on Canvas and a Reusable Running Training Schedule

So you may have noticed the photos in this dining room progress photo.  I finally got around to doing something with some of the photos from our European vacation.  This is a really simple project and I think it adds some variety instead of just doing frames.  I chose 4 of my favorite photos from Rome and ordered them in large format prints from Shutterfly.  I made sure to wait for a sale to get the best deal.

I chose prints of the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.

Other Supplies:
Blank canvases the same size as your prints
Black paint (I used acrylic paint which I already had on hand)
Several foam brushes
Mod Podge

The process was very simple.  I started by painting the sides of the canvases black and made sure to paint a little of the front and back too just to make sure no white would be showing.

Then I applied the Mod Podge to the front of the canvas and the backs of the prints with a foam brush.

Finally I placed the prints on the canvases and smoothed out any bubbles.  Then I hung them on the wall.  Piece of cake.  You could also cover the print itself with Mod Podge to create some texture but I opted not to do that.

My original plan was to hang the three color prints in the living room and the black and white Spanish Steps print in the dining room but once I hung the print in the dining room it looked really lonely and was too small for the wall space.

 

 So I decided to hang two more of the prints next to it and it looked much better.

I still have one more print that I am not sure what to do with yet but I'm sure I'll find a place for it eventually.

My second project was even simpler.  I am a runner and I am currently training for my third half marathon.  I like to follow a very specific training schedule and I usually make chart for each run I do.  I thought it would be fun to make a reusable training schedule for the exercise room.  I made a simple table in Microsoft Word and then printed it out.  I bought a really cute frame, trimmed the page to the dimensions of the page and then popped it in the frame.  I use a wet erase marker to write in my training schedule on the glass of the frame (you could use dry erase too but I am a teacher and have easy access to the wet erase markers and prefer them because I don't wipe them off as a write.  Darn left-handedness)  It was super simple and I think it is super cute!