Freightliner Seat Cover #2

My previous post was about the first seat cover I made for Todd's truck.  I decided he needed another one to switch out, so when he comes home we have another one to put in the truck and I can wash the one that was taken off.  We do this for everything he takes with him - from clothes to sheets and towels.  One bedroom in our house is dedicated to his stuff.  Everything is laid out in piles so when he comes home, he can just grab what he needs and I have until the next time he gets home to have everything washed.  This is especially helpful when he's only home for 12 to 24 hours.  If we didn't do this, I'd have to spend the whole time he's at home doing laundry.

Anyway, I wanted to take the new seat cover to check to make sure it was the right size so didn't get it all done before he left, so we washed the first one and he put that back on before he left.  This time he was home for two and a half days.  That sounds like a long time, but since he had been out for three weeks, we had lots of errands to run and he had one "honey-do" project for me (that will be in a separate post).
When we were at JoAnn's Fabric a while ago, I found this really neat semi fabric.  They only had one yard, so I bought it and didn't know what I was going to use it for.  That was a while ago, and I finally made it into a pillow case and used a pillow that was Todd's Mom's.  No picture yet of the pillow case, but from the scraps, I decided to use some of it for the new seat cover.

I really like the way it came out!!!!

Here it is on the office chair - it's not nearly as big as the seat in the truck :  

I still have some work to do on it, but it will be done before Todd gets home again.  This is also two layers of denim and two layers of cotton batting,  The front pulls down and has elastic in it to keep it on.  I'll also add the button holes for the long strap unless he says that's not working.  He's got two arm rests in the truck, so the back can't go down too low.

Seat Cover #1 for Todd's Truck

After I made the seat covers for our Protege (which can be seen here), Todd asked me to make one for his truck (2006 Freightliner Columbia - post here).  He previously just had a piece of fleece, but that wasn't working very well.   Last time he was home, I got it done and he used it for the three weeks he was out.   Here's a picture of it on the office chair (I didn't get one of it in the truck).


I sewed his initials in it, but you can't see them very well, I should have done them in different thread, but it was a last minute decision.  (TJ is what his Mom and other relatives used to call him, I've always known him as Todd.)


When he came home it was pretty dirty, so I washed it and he said we needed to figure out a better way to keep it on the seat.  I had added a couple straps (that you can't see) on the bottom w/ velcro to hook around a bar underneath, but that wasn't quite enough.  So what I did (and no picture, sorry), was to add a large botton hole on each side where the seat meets the back, then made a long strap that can be adjusted (with double D Rings).  The strap is long enough to go all the way around the seat, so he can just pull it tight.  He's going to use that for a while and let me know if I need to add some velcro to keep it tight.

He seems to like it pretty well, he's shown it to a few people while out on the road.  The main part is two layers of the thickest denim we could find and two layers of all cotton batting.   It's REALLY heavy, so it will hold up with him getting in and out of the truck multiple times each day.  (I've already started another one that will be in the next post.