Homemade seat covers?

mhmom

New member
Can you? Do you? We have a a Britax Marathon and I know they make tons of cute covers that are expensive so I was just wondering about homemade ones....any reason you can't? Just curious. Thanks!
 
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MomToEliEm

Moderator
I highly recommend against getting a 3rd party cover for your carseat. Here are some reasons:

Often, third party covers do not line up exactly with the harness slots on the seat, which may interfere with how the harness works and possibly make the harness tighten incorrectly on the child or may prevent the parent from seeing if the harness is too low or too high for the child.

Non-standard covers may have extra padding in areas and not enough padding in other areas. Padding could also shift around causing unpadded areas or overpadded areas where the manufacturer intended there to be a specific amount of padding which may harm a child during a crash. I know Graco has had to issue a couple recalls due to padding on their own covers not being within specifications. If Graco has issues with their own covers not being a certain thickness with padding, then they won't permit the use of 3rd party covers on their seats which may have way too much or way too little padding.

Third party carseat covers sold on ebay and other sources or made at home were never tested with the carseat. There is no way to know how it might act during an accident. I don't want to put my child at risk by making her be a crash test dummy to prove if a non-standard seat cover works properly.

Third party covers are often missing flame retardant on the fabric which is there to protect the child. I have heard of a few accidents where a car went up in flames which a child strapped into the carseat. In one accident from a few months ago in my area, a passing motorist was able to get the child out of the carseat in time (both suffered severe burns though, the grandmother did die from the fire). If there hadn't been flame retardant on the cover, there is a good chance the carseat would have burned up with the child still strapped in before someone could rescue the child.

All carseat manufacturers in the US prohibit the use of 3rd party covers or accessories used with their carseats. Use of these items, including 3rd party covers, removes the manufacturer from liability if there was a crash and you attempted to sue them.
 
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lovinwaves

New member
Alot of times the homemade covers are just as expensive as Britax's if not more. They also tend to look hideous, and aren't as durable.
 

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