Golf Cart Seat Cover

Making golf cart seat covers using pre-quilted fabric (purchased from Melinda's Fabric Shop), contrast fabric from Little Blessings Quilt Shop. grommet kit and iron-on batting.

The cover attached to the handrails on the of the cart using ties.  Grommets are placed along the side of the cover so the ties can be moved to accommodate different cart layouts.

Finished size of the cover is about 26.5" high x 39" wide.  The front contrast is lined with batting to add a little additional weight and help keep the cover from blowing up in the wind.

Fabric

The quilted fabric and contract fabric should be pre-washed and dried before starting.  After washing and drying a yard of the quilted fabric shrunk down to 41" wide, including the printed edge, which I will trim to 39".  With the finished height of the cover at 26.5" including binding, 1.5 yards of pre-quilted fabric is just enough to make two covers, and 1 yard of contrast enough to make one cover.

I've drawn on the reverse side of the fabric the pieces to cut, then will use rotary knife to cut them.

1. 7" high piece, the width of the fabric, for the front contrast.  There's enough fabric left over that the front contrast could be made higher, if desired (in which case it may be necessary to cut additional strips for binding and ties).
2. (6) 2.5" pieces cut lengthwise, which will be sewn together to make binding.
3. (6) 2" pieces cut lengthwise, which will be sewn together to make (4) ties about 40" long.

Contrast

Cut a piece of fusible batting 1" less than the size of the contrast piece, and iron onto the wrong side of the front contrast piece.  It's OK to piece batting if needed.

Pin the wrong side of contrast to the right side of cover, with the seam line running at exactly the height of the contrast piece less seam allowance.

(I've trimmed the end of the cover so I can accurately pin the contrast, but will trim the rest in the next step to make sure it's nice and square).

Stitch the contrast piece, turn to the right side and press.  Topstitch along top edge.

Square and trim edges to 26.5" x 39"

Binding

Sew the 2-1/2" wide binding strips together, trim and press to make one long piece of binding.  

Fold in half and press again to make a 1-1/4" side double-sided strip.

Starting halfway down one side, sew binding to the right side of the cover using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Leave at least 5" of binding loose, to be joined later.    (The 1/4" seam allowance after folding open will leave 1/2" on the front side of the quilt and 1/2" on the back side of the quilt.)

Binding Corners:

• At each corner stop 1/4" before end, pivot and stitch to corner.

• Fold the binding at a 90 degree angle, using the seamline where we pivoted as a guide.

• Fold binding again, with folded edge right against the cut edge of the side,  Continue stitching with 1/4" seam allowance, starting right at the edge.

Joining Binding:

• At the side where the pieces will be joined stop well before the join = about 10".
• Trim one side of binding.
• Lay the other piece over and trim so it overlaps the first piece by the width of the binding + 1/4".  I'm using 2.5" binding on this one, so cutting overlap to 2.75".  This method works with any width binding.

• Fold the two pieces open and sew them together using the same method as when creating binding strips.  Make sure there's 1/4" allowance on each end (that's the additional 1/4" cut above).

• Trim and press - here's the joined binding.  Finish up by stitching along the remaining edge with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Finishing Binding

Press binding on the right side.  At the corners make a neat fold on the wrong side.  Fold over and pin or clip, ensuring that the binding on the wrong side fully covers the stitching on the right side.

Stitch the binding on the right side.  It helps to use a stitch-in-ditch foot to keep the stitching line nice and straight in the ditch between main fabric and binding.

Binding Alternate Method

This method yields the prettiest results, especially good if making a nicer quilt.  

On the last step, instead of machine stitching the binding on the right side, hand stitch it on the wrong side.

Ties

Sew tie strips into one long strip using same the method as for binding.  Fold in one edge 1/2" and press and then fold in the other edge 1/2".  This doesn't have to be exact, but the edges should meet so the folded strip ends up at 1" wide.  When folded and stitched it will be 1/2".  

Fold in half and press.

Cut into (4) 41" long pieces.  Pieces don't have to be exactly 40" when finished, just long enough to tie around the around arms with enough left and make a bow.   It's better to have the strips a little too long rather than too short.

Fold in the ends of each strip 1/2" and press.  Stitch across the ends and along one edge of each strip.

Grommets

• Fairfield Glade cart dimensions:    The seat is 20" depth.  The right arm starts 1" from seat back and is 14.5" deep.  The left arm starts 1" from seat back and is 12" deep.  

Past seat covers I've made had (5) grommets every 4" - 1", 5", 9", 13" and 17" from rear edge.  Feedback has been that no one ever uses the last grommet, and that the first grommet was too close to the rear edge.

I'm changing to (4) grommets, spaced 4.5" apart - 2", 6.5", 11" and 15.5".  Using a Dritz Extra-Large (7/16") Eyelet kit which includes the tool to apply the grommets with a hammer.  I also bought a bulk order of the eyelets (without the tool) on sale for additional projects.

On the right side, place an eyelet 2" from rear edge and 1-1/4" from side edge.  Draw around the inside.  Continue with the other eyelets.

Repeat on the other edge.

Use an X-acto knife to cut into the circles.  This 1/2" X-acto chisel blade works perfectly.

 Carefully trim a tiny bit of the points inside the circle - not too much, the eyelet teeth need some fabric to grab onto. 

Place the smooth sided eyelet through from the right side to the wrong side.  

On the wrong side place the eyelet with teeth over.  

Take the project outside to a garage floor or driveway.  Put the washer tool on the ground.  Put the right side of the fabric with the smooth edged eyelet facing down on top of the washer.  

On the wrong side put the eyelet with teeth over the other eyelet.  Place the hammer tool in the hole.  Bang hard with a hammer to close.  It takes a number of good whacks to get the eyelet edges closed all the way. 

(Note to self:  use Wally's heaviest hammer and a tap-tap-TAP ... tap-tap-TAP motion, and watch the fingers - ouch, every time!)

Finished

Fold a tie strip in half and insert in eyelet hole from front to back.  Take the ends through the loop and neatly tighten.  Place at positions 1 and 4 on the right side (where the arms are generally wider), and 1 and 3 on the left side (where the arms are generally narrower).

Here's the finished cover: