Stroller bar cover

I whipped together a little sewing project this weekend. This was not Pinterest-inspired. I repeat, I sewed something that was not seen first on Pinterest. I know, stop the presses. This is for real.

See the polka-dots? (Nope, we can’t get enough!) It’s a chewable cover for the bar on our stroller.

You see, we had a problem.

Young sir likes to chew on things. Teething or no – he’s a chewer.

Despite my attempts to thwart this behavior and provide alternative chewing surfaces, the bar across the front of our UPPAbaby Vista stroller was just too tempting.

See? Chewed to bits.

It was so bad, we would come home from walks and I would find bits of black foam stuff in Kenton’s mouth and in the folds of his neck. NASTY.

I took to covering the bar with a dish towel for a while.

That worked for short walks, but on long walks, the bambino would get bored and unravel the towel to get to his beloved teething surface.

It also made for a good pillow. This shot was taken during an outing to the farmer’s market – a thinly disguised distraction from stretching this kid to one nap/day. GOOD TIMES.

So, I needed a better solution. Not to mention one that looked better than a ratty, old towel.

I had this fantastic fabric sitting around.

I bought a yard of it to possibly use in the nursery, but the black background didn’t quite fit in, so it was never used. However, it’s a perfect accent to our silver and black stroller.

Next, I needed to alter the fabric so that Kenton could gnaw on it and not break through the fabric. So, I did some googling on how to create oil cloth – which, if you do the old-fashioned way, takes a lot of time and effort – neither of which interested me. Instead, I took the easy way out.

I used this iron-on vinyl.

After that was set and cooled, I took another easy way out and ironed-on some no-sew hemming around all the edges…

Next, I sewed on some velcro… which I don’t have photos of because it got a little messy, to be honest – and I was in a bit of a hurry. Honestly, if I had to buy velcro for this project, I would have cut another corner and gone for the iron-on version and made this a no-sew project. However, I had some on hand, so I just put it in place with a few stiches.

Then, I slapped that new cover in place and Kenton gave it a once-over.

Thumbs up!

This is just in time too… as you read this, Kenton and I are making our way across the desert to the Promised Land.

Promised Land = San Diego

We’re heading to paradise for the week with my mom for some oceanside R&R. We’ll be using the stroller a lot – daily walks to Starbucks and the beach, the fair, possibly the zoo, new Children’s Museum, visiting family. Oh yeah! And no black foam bits will be found.

This here blog will not be neglected. I’ve still got daily posts for you – some projects from the Dream and some updates from Cali. Hope you have a great week!

About Michelle Fortin

Michelle Fortin is a follower of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She's also an award winning broadcast journalist and public relations professional. Michelle spent nearly a decade working in television newsrooms across the country, both behind and in front of the camera. Training future broadcast journalists in her faculty associate roles at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and at Arizona Christian University was a cherished focus of her post-TV career. Today, she maintains a roster of public relations clients focused on empowering fellow “momprenuers.” She also serves as a speaker for various women's and mom's events. Michelle received her bachelor’s degree from Biola University and Master of Mass Communication (MMC) from Arizona State University. She and her husband, two young kids and English bulldog call Scottsdale, Arizona, home.

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