Car Seat

Veronica got a new car seat yesterday.

I dithered about it, walking through the baby aisles at the shopping stores, hemming and hawing about what to get. I have a hard time paying $100+ for a car seat. Mostly because I've already 7 seats over the last seven years (between infant carriers, convertible, boosters, second seats for babysitters, etc). I also went from attempting gender neutral (which is pretty impossible) to all-girl without being too frilly or easily-shows-dirt (also unbelievably impossible). I looked and looked and found one I'd consider until I started hyperventilating at the price tag. Is it just me or have they become even more expensive in the last year?

So, I dithered a little more and finally, knowing that Veronica was much too long to really be sitting in her infant carrier, and big enough (she's 20 lbs and 6 oz at her one-year-well-child check-up) to sit forward facing, I found two that I liked. One was pink and brown, the other was half the price ($90 vs $40). For me, for the most part a car seat is less about the safety (they all hit about the same marks, last I checked- PLEASE CORRECT ME IF YOU KNOW DIFFERENTLY- and the only thing you're paying extra for is style, comfort, ease of use, etc.) I know how to install them, having actually taught classes to others (although I'm not officially trained), and I'm a stickler about having car seats in correctly. I still think they're a rip-off.

Anyway, so I wondered if I should pay double and get the pretty cute one, or just get the generic utilitarian one. In the end, my cheap side won out, but only because I figured I could change it to something I did like.

I brought it home, put 'Nica in bed (she still was in the infant carrier) and got to work. Two-and-a-half hours later, I LOVE this seat! I love it even more than the $90 seat at the store. It's totally original, girly but not frilly, should wash and wear well (i.e. won't be easy to see dirt/stains), and I love the print.

I still have some material left over to sew the skirt I bought the fabric for in the first place. But even if I never sew myself the skirt, I'll love putting my little girl in this seat!


I think 'Nica liked it, too. Or maybe it was the fact she got to sit forward and be a "big girl".



***Note: I did NOT sew a new cover! I merely stitched the material over the top of the previous cloth, folding over the sides and (attempting to) stitch in the ditch. I did include "button hole" finishes for the strap slots (yup, all 8 up top and all 5 below) and that was the most time consuming portion. It isn't perfect (at some of the edges you can see the cloth below, and sometimes my stitching wasn't straight), but I love it so much more than the original cloth that my sewing mistakes pale in comparison!***