How I Made My Own Nursing Cover for $5

After Gracie was born I didn’t leave the house for almost five weeks. It was a peaceful, sweet time. When I finally did summon the courage to venture out, we went to a nearby lake. Spicy-smelling pine trees, wisps of mist  drifting on the air from late summer rains, cool breezes: it was a delightful respite from my cozy but confined cave! However, there was one unexpected difficulty:

There was no place to nurse my little baby without feeling overexposed.

Except the car, that is, which I didn’t feel like walking all the way back to.

I feel the need to explain something, here: Not only do I want to be modest in the way I dress, I also want to be modest in the way I nurse. In other words, I don’t want other people to see personal parts of my body.

It’s not that I’m ashamed of my body; it’s just that I respect myself too much to expose myself in public.

I struggled to find a suitable location where I could sit down with my back against something solid in order to cover that area of my body and where I might have a little coverage on the sides, too. My cute little nursing cover that is so efficient while I’m propped in a corner of the couch wasn’t going to work very well here.

Desperately, I searched for a place to nurse my fussy baby. Finally, I found a somewhat-suitable park bench with wide slats. I had my husband sit on one side of me and put the stroller on the other side. I tried very carefully not to allow my back or sides to show. It worked, though it wasn’t what I would have called a complete “success.”

That experience made it clear to me that I needed another type of nursing cover. It seemed to me that I had heard something about making a simple one on your own using a way-too-large men’s T-shirt and hacking off the sleeves.

I tried it.

My first attempt was somewhat of a failure. 

I cut out the arms of the shirt and realized too late that I needed a little more material at the shoulders for it to fit right. The fabric bunched up over my shoulders instead of lying down smoothly. This made it so that the shirt wasn’t as long as I wanted it to be.

Unfortunately, my husband had already spent $10 on it even though I had told him to just buy the cheap $5 T-shirt. He had wanted to get me something nice, I think, and the plain ol’ T-shirts didn’t look dignified enough for his wife. I felt so guilty about that! After my guilt had subsided a little, I asked him to take me to Walmart so I could pick out another shirt. This time, I found a sales rack with a 3X Large men’s shirt for $5.

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I tried my hand again at this make-your-own-cheap-nursing-cover business, a smidgen wiser. This time, I used one of my own blouses to serve as a sort of pattern for trimming the sleeves off:

I tucked back the sleeves of my blouse so that I could mark where I needed to start cutting the shoulders.

I drew a line with a marker from the top of the shoulder down to the side seam.

Next, I matched the sides of the shirt so that I could cut both sleeves at the same time. I wanted to make sure they were even.

This is after I cut the sleeves off. Notice the shirt is still inside out.

While it was still inside out, I hemmed the sides of the sleeves together with a basic stitch on my sewing machine. There was still a little “pooch” at the corners, so I sewed another seam at the corners to smooth out the transition. The picture below shows how it looked when I was done.

No, I ‘m not a sewing expert, but this was pretty easy to do! Even if you don’t know how to sew like a professional, if I can make this cover, you can, too.

There are only a few minor downsides to this cover, but with easy solutions: 

• It does not fit well over bulky sweaters (solution: take your sweater off first).

• It is thin and will show the shape of what is underneath (solution: make sure you create a space  between the cover and your chest area  before the baby latches on).

• It isn’t super cute (solution: if using plain material, you can sew on some cute appliques). 

On the upside, I like my $5 nursing cover for three reasons:

• One, it was cheap. For those of us who need to save our money for all those baby diapers, this is a huge plus.

• Two, it was super easy to make (at least it was after I finally figured out the trick).

• And three, it covers my back and sides. It’s even long enough for me to sit on the back of the shirt so it won’t slip up. I don’t think I’ll be so worried the next time we’re at the park and the only place to sit are park benches!

Here’s a sweet little cover you can get at Target for $32.99 if you’re not into sewing your own. It doubles as a car seat cover:

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• What do you think of this homemade nursing cover–for you, what would be the pros or cons of having a cover like this one? Any ideas for how it could be improved?
• Do you already have your own, homemade nursing cover? If so, please share how you made it!
• How about any other suggestions for nursing discreetly while in public? What are some tips you could give other moms? Links to any great nursing covers?

~Jessica