The Extender

padded waist webbing cover

I’ve seen a lot of people asking recently for a tutorial on how they can cover the waist webbing strap on their baby carriers to make them more comfortable. Waistband webbing can dig into skin and cause the dreaded ‘muffin top.’

As I was about to start working on this tutorial I had a funny memory pop into my head.
Before booster seats and such, my dad bought my sisters and I covers for our seat belts. I can’t remember the name but
they were basically a lightly padded sleeve and the seat belt was inserted into for better positioning. What a blast from the past.

Anyway, this tutorial is really straight forward and if you have any experience with car seat strap covers, have made The Voyager carrier, or a DSLR camera strap (thanks Pinterest!), this process should seem fairly familiar.

Using the Extender with Your Carrier

This overlay is compatible with single adjust buckle waists.
To use with a dual adjust buckle, you can make two and use one on each side of your waist webbing.

[There is a single adjust photo at the bottom of the tutorial]

Let’s get started!

First you’ll want to download the free pattern pieces HERE.

You’ll also need:

1/4 yard of a bottom weight fabric

1/4 yard of a decorative fabric
[Truly you can also use up some fabric scraps lying around to make this. The main body portion of the cover is only 5.5″ x 11″.]

10 inches of fold over elastic (FOE) OR double fold bias tape. [optional — this is for bound edges]

Padding – you can use 1/2″ foam or fleece, or fusible fleece
[I used two layers of fusible fleece for mine]

PRINTING

Print the pattern pieces at actual size or 100% scale. Don’t forget to measure the test square on the first page to make sure that the pieces have printed correctly.

Cut out the pattern pieces. There is only one pattern piece that needs taped together; that is the “main body piece” and it has two pieces.

The finished extender measures 10″ x 3.5″.

You can adjust the finished length of the extender by adding or taking length from the areas marked on the “main body piece” and the “padding piece.” Just make sure to add or remove the same amount of length from both pieces.

Choose your style!

Turned overlay OR bound overlay

There are two ways you can make this extender. The main difference between the two is in how the overlay is constructed.

In the picture above, the pink extender (top) overlay has been sewn and turned.
On the black extender (bottom), the overlay edges were bound with FOE.

Why choose one over the other?

They both function the same, so either method is fine to use. The bound overlay is faster and does cut down on bulk.
The turned overlay is great if you don’t have bias tape/FOE on hand and don’t feel like making any. It’s also adds a bit more cushion.

Cutting

Cut (2) of the “main body” pieces from bottom-weight fabric
Cut (1) overlay piece from bottom-weight fabric
Cut (1) overlay piece from decorative fabric
Cut your chosen padding using the “padding piece”

Turned Overlay

Place the decorative and structural overlay pieces with faces (right sides) together.

Sew around the overlay pieces with a 1/2″ seam allowance. The seam allowance is really important here so the pieces line up later.
Leave a hole to turn along one of the short edges. Before turning, make sure to clip your corners.

With the overlay piece turned, prod into the corners and finger press the seams before pressing the piece flat with an iron.

Topstitch along both of the shorter edges of the overlay piece (1/4″).

Place the main body pieces face up (right sides) onto your work surface.
Place the overlay right side up onto one of the main body pieces and center it.

Place the second main body piece face down (right side) onto the overlay.

Sew along both long sides with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Turn right side out and press. Insert the padding into the extender.

Turn the short ends under and clip/pin them shut.

Now simply edgestich (1/8″) along each short end to close and you’re finished.

Bound Overlay

Lay the decorative overlay piece face up (right side) onto the other overlay piece.
Apply FOE or bias tape along the short sides of the overlay pieces. Make sure you bind both layers!