Materials
- 1 yard of cloth of your choice, woven cotton, or woven cotton poly works best
- 2 ea. 1 or 1.5 inch D-ring
- 16-18 inches of boning, I usually buy Ridgelene, Walmart doesn't have it, Hobby Lobby does, as does JoAnn's, any local cloth store should have it
- thread to match the cloth
- Sewing machine that can at least do straight stitches, zig zag is useful if you can find one with zig zag, I recommend using a machine with decorative stitches because it adds a fun touch.
- Scissors
- Iron
- Ironing Board
2. Fold the cloth in half with selvages together, right sides facing each other. The selvages are the sides of the cloth that are specially woven so they won't fray. The right side is the side you want facing out in the end. Iron so the fold is nice and clean.
3.Cut a 3.5 inch piece from the side of the fabric (not the selvage side). This will be the strap that goes around the neck.
4. Fold cut piece in half. I'm going to call this the strap from now on. Pin it and press it.
5. Sew the strap the long way using a 5/8" seem allowance.
6. Attach a safety pin to one end of the strap. Feed the safety pin through the strap, pulling the cloth behind it, and turning the strap right side out.
7. Pin the strap so the seam is on the side, press.
8. Zig zag, straight stitch, or fancy stitch down both sides of the strap.
9. Cut a 3-4 inch section off the strap.
10. Feed this section through the D-rings and straight stitch as close as you can to the D-rings.
11. Center the boning on the large piece selvages of the large piece of fabric. Mark on the fabric where the edges are.
12. Roll up and pin the long strap piece (this keeps it from getting in the way while you sew).
13. Open the large piece of fabric and pin the long strap and the D-ring strap to the cloth where the marks from the boning are.
14. Fold the cloth back, right sides together.
15. Pick a side of the cloth and mark where you would like an opening left. Do not do leave the opening on the selvages!!!!! Make the opening about the same size as the width of you hand, maybe a little bigger.
16. Pin the edges together.
17. Straight stitch with a 5/8" seam around the edge of the cloth, making sure to now sew the opening and that the strap pieces are sewn into the seam.
18. Melt the edges of the boning, this keeps the plastic from sliding out and poking through.
19. Cut the corners of the cover. Turn the cover right side out, poking the corners with the lid of a pen to force them into a nice 90 degree corner.
20. Taking the boning, push it through the hole to the top of the cover. Pin it in place between the straps. I usually pin directly below and at the very ends of the boning. Boning is very hard to pin through.
21. Pin the rest of the edges, being careful where your opening was to make it look like the rest of the cover (i.e. the amount of cloth folded inside should be 5/8". You can press at this point, avoiding the boning side as boning melts easily.
22. If you choose to Zig Zag or Fancy Stitch the edges, just sew right through the boning. If you run into problems, you might have to change needles, but most sewing machines should be able to do this. If you straight stitch, you can sew right though the boning, or you can sew directly underneath the boning and then go back and stitch at the ends. This creates a 'pocket' for the boning to be in. This is also an option if you can't get your sewing machine to stitch through the boning.
23. Roll the end of the strap over twice, using about 1/4" of fabric for each roll. Straight stitch the roll so it doesn't come undone. This is also called clean finishing.
24. Celebrate!! Because you just made a great nursing cover.
4 comments:
Would snaps or velcro work as well? It looks like a great, fast project :)
Yeah, only I worry that the kid would be able to pull them apart and you would be stuck showing off the goods. I wash mine quite a bit, so the velcro would probably wear out quickly. D-rings are less than a dollar for four at Wal-mart, I think it is worth the price. The other nice thing about the D-rings are that you can adjust the length of the strap easily, I find I adjust mine a lot, but that might just be me. If you do use snaps or velcro for one, let me know how it turns out.
You are so talented!! :) You make it look so easy and effortless, but I can't help but think it isn't. Thanks for posting how to make these though. I'd love to make one for my sister soon.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!! I've made two, but with DeNae babystepping me through it each time and I've been wanting to make more. Thank you! I sent the link to my sister too.
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