How to sew a baby doll carrier seat cover...

Finished baby carrier liner is sewn
for a Cabbage Patch doll carrier,
approximately 12-14 inch doll size.

       I'm including these instructions for a 12 to 14 inch doll carrier made for Cabbage Patch Babies. But visitors may use procedures here to line any kind of baby doll carrier seat they acquire.  
       These little plastic carriers are commonplace in resale markets where I live but seldom do they have clean cushions or any cushions at all for that matter. Most doll carriers may be recovered easily without a pattern, if you know the process. And more often than not, these doll items can be made to look better with the cushion makeover!

       Read all of the instructions first before you begin the project. You may wish to make this project using a machine instead of by hand as I did.

Supply List:

• approximately one yard of felt or knit, If you are a beginner sewer I would purchase a knit because it has a bit more 'stretch' than the felt. I used felt in my carrier cushion.
  
• needle and thread to match
• about 15 inches of 3/4'' elastic, this will be more or less depending upon the size of carrier you are covering.
  
• baby doll carriers seat for 14inch doll
• newsprint
• safety pin for the elastic insert process
• a washable ink pen to make marks on the fabric
• tiny nail scissors or seam ripper.
  

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. Remove the front belt that holds the baby doll in it's carrier before making the newsprint pattern. You can rip out the stitching of this belt to make a more accurate copy of it for the new one that will replace it. However, I just spread the old one on top of my new fabric and cut out a copy adding a 1/4 inch seam allowance around it as I cut. (Don't forget to add more length to it's ends if these are folding over like the ones you see in the photos below.) Make two identical copies, right sides together and sew a narrow hem of 1/4 inch all around. Leave a two inch opening, turn the belt right sides out and whip stitch the opening together. Set this piece aside for the chair's new assembly.
2. To make the pattern, press the newsprint into the seat and use masking tape to shape a pattern, include the sides of the carrier while doing this. Remove the pattern gently and be careful not to tear the pattern.
3. Cut the newsprint at the lowest corners to the very back of the seat imprint. See the photo below. Once you make these two cuts, your pattern will look as though it has wings. 
4. Smooth out the pattern on top of your felt to cut out the carrier cover adding a one inch seam allowance as you cut. The one inch seam allowance will insure that there is plenty of fabric to stretch around the outer lip of the carrier after inserting the elastic. The fabric under the wings needs only a 1/4 seam allowance.
   
5. You will need to cut both a front and a back piece from this pattern from your material.
   
6. Next you will need to sew with right sides together, the seams that were made to look like wings. This creates the fitted 'cup' shape that matches that of your baby carrier's seat. Repeat this for both the top and the bottom sides separately before sewing the two pieces together. 
7. Sew the identical top and bottom or front and backs of the cushion with right sides together. This seam should be 1/4 and inch all the way around, leaving a one to two inch opening. 
8. Turn the seat cushion inside-out with right sides facing out.
   
9. Now sew a straight stitch around the out side edge approximately 1/2 inch in width. This will create a long narrow pocket around the cushion.
10. Poke the safety pin through the end of your elastic and feed it through the opening in the outer edge where you turned the two sides of the carrier cover inside-out.
11. Once this elastic has been inserted through the outside pocket back to it's other end, sew the two ends of elastic together tightly. 
12. Whip stitch the opening shut and stretch the seat cover over the front of the carrier.
13. Turn the plastic covered carrier over and take you washable in pen to make marks through the three holes of the carrier where the belt was once inserted. This will indicate where you must make one inch cuts through both the top and bottom fabrics for button holes. The cuts are best made judiciously with a small pair of nail clipping scissors. Some folks use a tiny seam ripper but I prefer the nail scissors because these are easier to control.
14. You will need to make three button holes, two on the sides and one at the bottom after removing the cover again and clipping the openings for the belt. Once these are made properly with finished edges, readjust the cushion back on to the carrier. (You will not need to use fusible webbing suggested here but the stitching technique is good for my purposes.)
    
15. Insert the ends of the belt back through the button holes as these were once attached in the very beginning of the project. 
16. To keep the belt from slipping out, turn over the ends and stitch a seam approximately one inch. This should hold the belt in the carrier loosely. After inserting a doll into the seat, you should be able to pull the belt snug from underneath the carrier.
    

Above are photos of the plastic baby doll carrier without a liner for the seat and also with the
fabric belt that remained with this seat removed. You are going to make two identical copies
 of this belt on the right with an added 1/4 inch seam allowance.

See left and right, how the pattern was made by sculpting newsprint inside it's interior and around
 it's edges using masking tape. In the center photograph, you can see how I lifted the pattern off
the carrier and cut the side panels apart from the pattern. Now the pattern looks as though it has
wings. These two cuts will be sewn back together to shape the 'cup' of the cover into a seat. There
 is a one inch seam allowance around the outside of the pattern and a 1/4 inch seam allowance
on the inside of the wings.

Left the arrows show where I have made button holes to fit the belt through the carrier cover/
cushion. You may also be able to see the quilting in this photo; this is optional and I did not mention
 this step in the instructions above for fear that it may over complicate the pattern for new
sewers. Center see the belt attached. Right, see arrows pointing to where the button holes were
 marked through the openings in the back of the carrier with a washable ink pen.

Left and right, the belt reattached is kept on at all times. The baby doll just slips down through the
 top of the belt (arrow shows), with each leg dangling through the left and right sides of the belt.
 Because the ends of the belt are sewn over a half inch at the back of the carrier, the belt cannot
 disengage easily from the doll seat. This step must be done in the end after the carrier cover is
 stretched over the plastic seat.

More handmade patterns for doll furniture and accessories:

• How to make a liner for a doll sized picnic basket
• How to sew a gathered canopy for a child-sized market stall 
• Sew cushions for doll rocking chair