Pimp my Pram

A week or so ago, one of my darling cats decided to forget what the difference between a pram seat and a litter tray is.  The pram was collapsed and  because the seat comes off completely I had it sitting upright next to the wheels/frame.  I went to the freezer to get meat out for dinner and got a whiff of cat pee.  In the seat.  Needless to say, it had soaked through the fabric into the padding of the seat and there is no way I can get that stink out.  I'm currently waiting to hear back from the shop about whether I can get a replacement seat cover separately or not.

In the mean time I have hauled out our spare pram.  As it had been heavily used for 15 months by the original owner, the state of the fabric was pretty shocking, and the seat padding smelled a bit...funky.  The fabric itself seems to be prone to pulled threads anyway, which makes it a stupid choice for something like a pram.   The general quality of the sewing was dodgy too, poorly finished and not so much symmetrical.

I made (symmetrical!) patterns and cut out the bits that were easy to replace.  I briefly contemplated attacking the faded, tatty canopy too but that looked like too much work for a temporary situation.

Then I sewed it all together.  The new seat padding has 30mm batting in it.  The shoulder strap covers also have batting in them and velcro on the back - the original ones were stitched shut and you had to slide them up the strap.  The bar fabric turned out too long and not quite wide enough to wrap around and velcro down, but it will do.

I think it looks a LOT better than it did before:

I took the pram out for a spin last Friday and I like making lists, so here's a list of pros and cons.

Pros

• The storage basket is huge
• The seat can lie flat
• It is a bit easier to push up onto the footpath because it is a 4-wheeler
• Red and black are better colours than the brown of my other pram

Cons

• Alex grizzled about being in a pram for the first time ever
• The storage basket is a bugger to get to if you have the seat reclined at all
• When sitting all the way up, Alex's feet hang over the front edge already.  Possibly made worse by her cloth nappy pushing her forward?
• It is too short for me, especially when walking downhill.  Nev looks positively silly when pushing it
• It sounds like it is going to rattle apart when moving
• I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put it up without looking a bit special
• I cannot for the life of me figure out how to lock it together when it is collapsed, so it tends to fall open all the time
• It is not dissimilar to steering a brick

I reallllyyy hope I can get a replacement seat for my other pram.  I could always convert this one into one of those nifty pet strollers...