McCall's 5721, The Cart Cover

This is proving to be an interesting project to work on, no home dec or garment here! I am using McCalls 5721. It's called a 3 in 1 cart cover but I am not sure why. If anyone can solve that mystery, please let me know.

As usual, I did things a bit differently than the pattern spec'd. Instead of quilt batting I used a flatter firmer heavy wool/poly blend blanket that has been washed a zillion times. I have used this king size blanket in many projects so needed to put it back together to get a piece large enough for the cart cover.  I triple zigzagged the pieces together and then cut out my cover. The ripples you see disappeared as soon as it was all pressed. I wasn't sure about this change at first but have since decided I like the flatter look. I think it will fold up into it's bag more easily as well.

Here you can see the two print fabrics and the blanket all stitched as in a pillowcase and then turned. The pattern has you stitch around the leg hole area and then cut them out leaving a half inch seam allowance. Then it instructs you to cut back only the batting  to the stitching line. I was not digging that little layer of batting out and doing that. I just cut the whole staystitched leg hole to a 1/4 inch. You'll see why in a minute. The pattern then has you stitch 3/4 of an inch away from the edge to make a casing for the elastic. I went bigger, one inch. I hate pushing elastic through tight areas. I know this is a border print, but I assumed it matched on both sides. Assume nothing! I think it will all work in the end however so I am not worrying about it.

Sewing around the leg holes makes a lot of bulk on the machine, fair warning. Here's another change: the pattern has you make bias binding that is folded in to the center and then you wrap it around the hole and topstitch it on. I am not always successful with that method. So that is why I cut the leg hole back to a 1/4 inch. I did a French binding instead, folding the 2 inch strip in half, applying it to one side, turning and pressing, and then applying it to the other. It made the bias more of a contrast and wider looking which I liked as well. Above you can how I did the leg hole. The raw edge is sewn in a 3/8 inch seam to the leg hole starting one inch away from the beginning of the bias strip. That needs to stay clear at this point. When you get to the end stop about two inches short of the beginning. Cut the end to fit and tuck it inside of the folded begining edge. Pin (must) and keep stitching to finish the seam. I say must pin because the strip will definitely want to pull out of the fold. Once this was done the leg hole was trimmed back to 1/8 inch. Then the binding was pressed to the other side and topstitched.

Another interesting aspect of this pattern is the giant buttonhole you make two of to accommodate the strap to hold the child in. This was pretty easy. My thread is a nice blue to match but looks black here. Once I cut the buttonholes open the white blanket showed through of course so I took a blue sharpie and touched that up. Lots of Fray bloc was used as well. You can see one of the pockets topstitched to the left. Here is a closer look. They have loops to hook toys on to (?).

It's hard to see but I tacked the ends of the pocket/loop with a tiny zigzag, like you see on jeans.

This pattern is basically an oval with two leg holes and two pockets for toys or such and a big bag pocket off the back that the whole mess folds into. I think it's pretty clever construction. I hope to finish it today and go to market tomorrow and take a pic of it in the cart. Think I'll turn a few heads? .....Bunny