Booster Seat Cushion

Alex is starting into the world of solid food so we really need to move Chloe out of the highchair. At the moment she is using it pushed up to the table which is the perfect height. My idea was to make a cushion that will strap to a chair to boost her up to the table so she can be a 'big girl'.

I went to Para Rubber and got a couple of squares cut out of furniture grade foam so it is nice and firm (they cut to your measurements which is fantastic). These ones are 35cm x 35cm x 10cm.

I cut up my material:

top and bottom - 15 1/4" x 15 1/4"

sides - 2 pieces 5 1/4" x 12 1/4"

- 1 piece 5 1/4" x 15 1/4"

- 2 pieces 4" x 22"

1 x 20" (51cm) zip

2 x D-Ring sets

2 pieces of webbing at 1 metre and 1.5metre long

(5/8" seam allowance on all seams unless otherwise stated.)

I sewed my zip in the middle of the 2 long side pieces and then cut the resulting in a long piece that could zip in half. I then trimmed the long sides so that the piece was 5 1/4" wide, but I left it 22" long. To this I sewed the 2 smaller side pieces with a 1" seam allowance resulting in a long piece that wrapped around 3 sides of the foam.

The back piece was going to have a strap attached to it. I took the 1m piece of webbing and added the D-rings to one end. I then laid it through the middle of the last side piece lengthwise. I offset it a bit so that more hung off one end than the other as I wanted the end with the D-rings to sit in about the middle of the chair back. I folded the material back the width of the seam allowance before sewing back and forth on both ends, and then sewed a square in the middle to hold it in place. I wanted it to go completely around the chair rather than just sew it onto the edges of the cushion for extra strength. The tricky bit was getting the strap to come through to the front. By sewing over the seam allowance I was able to cut the seam allowance either side of the webbing to create a hole in the seam. I then sewed up either side of the seam up to the webbing. (I think the pictures explain that better)


edit for this part: I have done this a different way. Check out this post for an easier way to sew the strap at the seams.

It fits around the cushion - YAY!

Repeat the process to add the longer strap piece on one of the squares for the bottom strap.

Then came the tricky part which involved pinning the top and bottom to the edges and sewing around. (Don't forget to open the zip a bit before sewing on the top piece fully). I'm sure there must be an easy way to do the corners but I couldn't work it out. It didn't turn out too bad in the end.

All that's left is to turn in the right way and stuff the cushion in.

And this is the cushion on the chair. I made the straps longer to fit around different chairs. With both straps it is very firmly on there and it has been working beautifully. I plan to make another for my mothers place as we go there lots.