Fleece, No Sew, Car Seat Poncho

Are your kids crammed into their car seats wearing winter coats?

Do blankets fall off when you are carrying the carrier in and out of the car?

Try this simple solution...

My youngest daughter just turned six months old the other day, and she is wearing 9 month clothes for the most part, but some things she is in twelve months - so she is getting to that point where she is starting to grow out of the infant carrier car seat.  Now that fall/winter is here its even more noticeable because of the bulky clothes needed to keep warm.  I have the car seat bunting for her infant car seat carrier, but she gets so hot when I put that on it that she is soaking wet with sweat when I pull her out of it.  So I pulled out a winter coat the other day, thinking maybe it wouldn't be so bad in the car seat.  Wrong.  The poor thing was in the car seat like a stuffed sausage.  I am not ready to move her to a convertible car seat yet, because I really like having the carrier for her when we go places, and she is still a supported sitter so I feel like she needs it.  I can handle the carrier easily with her and my 21 month old, which is also essential at this point.  A blanket doesn't really work either, lets face it one gust of fall winds and the blanket is on the ground in the parking lot.  Since I needed something to keep her warm I decided that I would try making a fleece no sew cape/poncho that she could wear in the car seat.  I thought it wouldn't be too bulky and would keep her warm while not constricting her movements.  I made it yesterday, and she wore it to the commissary for our weekly shopping trip.  It worked perfectly.  Kept her warm, stayed on, and she wasn't stuffed into the carrier and uncomfortable.

What I did was basically make a no sew fleece blanket - on a much smaller scale and cut a neck hole into it.  Here is how you do it.

I bought 3/4 of a yard of two fleece fabrics, the princess one you see as well as a hot pink.
Trim the edges of your fabric- sometimes the brand of fleece will run down the side or there will be a line of fabric with out the fleece softness at the edge.
On a table lay your fabric out, I folded mine corner to corner - this would have made it square if I cut it then. 
Before cutting it, I pulled the fabric 4 inches past the edge, then I marked four inches longer than the fold line on the other end. - This allowed me space for the findge.  Keeping it a square.
Then I cut the fabric on the line four inches past the fold fold mark.
Next I layed out the fabric and placed the other on top of it - cutting them both to the same size. 
I measured four inches on the corners and cut squares out of each corner.
Now, in one inch increments cut fringe pieces all around, four inches long.
Tie your fabric fringe in knots holding the two pieces of fabric together and making a two sided blanket.

Once you are all done with your "blanket" take your fabric and fold it corner to corner - making a triangle.  Trim the tip off the triangle - this is the center of your blanket and will leave a small hole in your blanket.
Now cut one inch finge pieces all around this small hole - this is the neck.
Tie your fringe pieces in knots just as you did with the outside of the blanket.
I did four inch cuts just as I had for the edges of my blanket and this worked perfectly.  My daughter's head fit in easily and it wasn't tight at all. 

That's it you're done and with plenty of fabric to make a no sew fleece hat to match! (I haven't done this yet, but it's on my list during today's nap time.)

Good luck!