Tutorial: Car Seat Book Holder

Last Sunday, as I was getting myself and the Little Ones ready for church, I was also getting us ready for 3 hours in the car to go see family right after church was over. I spent a few minutes organizing toys and snacks for the car, and then I realized how badly I wished we had someplace for books in the car, so they wouldn't get knocked around with the toys or spilled on when not being read. With about 1/2 hour of spare time, I pulled together exactly what we needed, with stuff I had lying around.

First, I measured the space between the carseats: about 13" wide and 20" tall.

Next, I found some suitable scraps of cotton (extra pieces from a baby quilt) and a scrap of quilt batting, and cut them to those measurements. I also dug up an old placemat which I folded in half, and the top front of a pair of old pants, to use as pockets:


Next, I sandwiched the batting, one cotton piece, and the folded placemat like this, and stitched around the sides and bottom "raw" edge of the placemat, making sure to reinforce the bottom stitches:


I added the piece from my old pants, stitching just the sides:


Then, my 4-year-old got hold of the camera while my 2-year-old goofed off under the table:


While I placed the second piece of cotton on top of the thing I just made, right-side down, and stitched around the sides and bottom of the entire thing, reinforcing the bottom stitches and clipping the corners, like this:

This is what the "front" should look like.

And this is what the "back" should look like.

Turn it inside-in, and then forget to take a photo of the pocket side because your four-year-old still has the camera, and she thinks the back-side is pretty:


Fold the top raw edges in, and slip the ends of a ribbon or some bias tape in between, to make a loop at the top, then stitch it closed:

Hang it from a head-rest, add books, et voila! A traveling library! This is nice for paperback picture books, or for coloring books - the little pockets on the old pants would be great for storing boxes of crayons or colored pencils:

Safe and peaceful travels!