Tutorial: Seat Belt Shoulder Pad

Today’s tutorial is more practical than anything else, but hopefully one that will help you as much as it has helped me.  When driving, my seat belt rubs my collarbone and/or shoulder up to the point where I can't stand it no longer. This only happens in the warmer months when I am obviously not bundled up with layers of clothing. I have often wondered if other people have the same problem. According to Google people do, you can even buy seat belt pads/covers for protection. So it seems my problem is not unique and so isn’t the idea of a seat belt shoulder pad either.
 
I decided to try my hand at making one. It is a fast and simple project to protect your collarbone and/or shoulder from getting chafed. No more friction or irritation!
 
Keep the following in mind:

• Measure the width of your car’s seat belt. Mine is 1⅞” wide.
• I didn’t want the pad to be too visible, so I chose a neutral, dark fabric for the front, back and binding. You can certainly use a vibrant fabric if you like or even more than one color fabric.
• Technically, this is a mini quilt, consisting of top, batting, backing and binding.
• I used a 100% cotton fabric with a single layer of cotton batting in between. If you want something even softer, how about using flannel or a cuddle fabric? You can also use a double layer of batting or a thicker type batting. You will have to adjust the fabric measurements accordingly.
  

What you will need:

• 2 - 6½” x 10” fabric rectangles
  
• 1 - 2” x 38” fabric strip for the binding
• 1 - 6½” x 10” piece of batting
• 9½” strip of Velcro
• Matching thread

Step 1:
Measure the width of your car’s seat belt if you haven’t done so already. If it varies a lot from my measurement (1⅞”), you will have to adjust accordingly. Cut the fabric and batting according to measurements above.
On the top layer of fabric, draw a quilt design using a water soluble fabric marker, hera marker or tailor’s chalk. I chose parallel lines an inch apart.

Step 2:
Layer the “sandwich” by putting the backing wrong side facing up, followed by the batting and the top with marked design. Pin or baste in place. Usually when I pin the quilt layers together I use curved safety pins, but since this is such a small “quilt”, I opted for using regular pins to hold everything together.

Step 3:
Quilt the design. After quilting is completed, square up the quilt by cutting away excess batting.

Step 4:
Cut the binding strip if you haven’t done so already. Sew in place.

Step 5:
Take the soft part of the Velcro and position it close to one long edge on the top of the quilt. It can slightly overlap with the binding. Stitch in place. (When you sew with Velcro, try to sew close to the edges where there are no hooks or loops.)

Step 6:
For the next step you need to go to your car. Wrap the pad snugly around the seat belt, measure where the other piece of Velcro needs to go so the pad will stay in place. Pin Velcro in place or take measurement.
Stitch in place on the back side (close to the long edge) of pad. Mine is about ¾” from the edge of the binding. 

Step 7:
Once you’ve done that, you are ready to go for a frictionless drive and test out your new seat belt shoulder pad!