Seatbelt Koozie

If it isn’t already abundantly obvious, I am not a tee-shirt and jeans kind of person. No shame or shade to people who are, but I like my parts to be less confined (insert lame innuendo here) and I want to be comfy all the time, so I prefer dresses. You just slip them on and you don’t have to wear pants. You actually look so much more put together, while being much lazier!

Which brings me to this shirt. It was given to me by one of my best friends, who used to work at the bar this shirt is advertising for, which makes me EXTRA not like it…

Hold on to your butts because it’s ⚠️Soap Box Tiiiiime!!!⚠️ Aside from not liking tee shirts in general, I also don’t like wearing advertisements. Think about it, companies having YOU pay THEM for THEIR marketing is backwards. If you ever see a “high end” brand tee shirt that just says the label’s name, e.g. “Gucci” or “Armani,” you can guess that A.) that is the cheapest thing a luxury brand sells, and B.) they’ve passed the advertising expenses on to you by having you buy the shirt. Companies can afford to advertise without you footing the bill. Of course, this bar is not a huge corporation, but my feelings are the same: I am not a walking billboard.

This refashion is taking a different direction, as it will *not* be made into something wearable. I noticed recently on a cross-country road trip that I wear my seat belt under my armpit most of the time because it slices into my neck (not safe, I know). However, after 20+ hours of driving, it had begun to slice into my armpit as well. I decided I needed one of those soft pad thingies that make the seat belt more bearable. I’m calling it a seat belt koozie for lack of a better word!

The first step was to separate the bottom of the shirt from the top.

I just eye-balled this, so once I had a rectangle, I sewed all but one edge shut. Then I stuffed it with some fluff from an old pillow that got ripped in the washing machine but was too ugly to repair. The pillow has since gone on to stuff another pillow, an applique, and this koozie thing, so don’t worry, it wasn’t wasted!

Next, I folded it in thirds and stuck on some velcro dots. These are self-adhesive, but I have found that they can melt off in the heat, so I also tacked them down for reinforcement.

Once I had one side of the velcro down, I stuck the opposite side to the velcro and folded the fabric over it, so that the dots would line up exactly with one another.

Again, I tacked down the velcro in case it gets oppressively hot in the car. It will be difficult to sew through self-adhesive velcro because the glue will gum up your needle, but if you stick with it (no pun intended), it’ll work!

And that was it. This recycle took me less than 10 minutes, and now I’m free to Tokyo drift in comfort.

So that’s it! I no longer have this tee shirt stuffed in my pajama drawer, nor is my neck/armpit being scraped raw in the name of safety. Killed two birds with one stone, as some say.

So that’s it! All ready to go for my next road trip 🙂

Til next time!