Pintrest FAILED me! *gasp!* (a small tutorial)

I have been wanting to make Eliza a headrest for her car seat that would not interfere with the safety of her seat.  (Technically, anything, after market, that goes between the baby and the car seat could be a potential safety hazard.)  Yesterday, I had a few hours free, while Isaac was in MMO, set aside to tackle this project.
Except, well, I couldn't find a tutorial for what I wanted.  In fact, I couldn't find ANYTHING  that didn't include that back part of the headrest that goes behind the baby!  I scoured Pintrest for hours a while, hoping to find something that would give me the faintest idea on what to do, where to start, etc.

Nothing. I didn't think it was possible. But, Pintrest failed me! 

So, I decided to get to work myself.  I took my old headrest, and did some funky measuring with my handy dandy measuring tape.  From that, I enlarged the measurements a bit to make room  1. for my seam allowance and 2. I wanted Eliza to be able to grow into it. 

Here's what you need if you're following along.

• 1 piece of minky, or other equally soft and luxurious fabric, measuring 21" x 10" (Our car seat is a big one, that goes up to 30 lbs.  if you have a smaller one, I'd probably only do 19 inches in length.)
• Coordinating thread, (or neutral color if you're lazy like me and don't want to swap it out. it doesn't really show on the minky)
• stuffing (I used some of the insides of an old pillow that I was going to through out anyway.)
• scissors
• an absurdly cute baby to model finished product

First, take your minky fabric and measure the length and mark with chalk (or a pen.)

Then, measure and mark your width.

Take your sharp scissors and cut your fabric.  (If you're using minky, like me, hold the fabric kind of tight. Minky is slippery.)

Next, fold your fabric, like a hot dog, right sides together. (bumps on the inside. ;) )

 Now sew the edges together, being sure to leave a small opening somewhere.  I left my opening right in the middle of the longest side, since the seam will be pretty much hidden when the headrest is in use.  (I normally re-enforce the front and back of the opening so that it doesn't come apart when I'm turning the fabric inside out or stuffing it.)

As a quick side note, I never pin minky.  I've tried and tried, but it always works out better for me if I just go with the flow of the minky.  When I try to pin it down, I always end up with a crinkly/wrinkly spot somewhere.

I failed to take pictures for the next few steps.  Sorry! 

*trim any excess fabric

*Take your tube-like fabric and turn it right-side in. You can use the eraser end of a pencil (if its sharpened) to help you get into those corners.

*Next up, the fun part!  Stuffing!  Take your stuffing and push it through your opening, taking care to get it in each of the corners.  Stuff as little or as much as you'd like. 

*Hand stitch the opening closed.

Wah-lah!  You have a safe car seat headrest!

Cue the cute baby:

I think she likes it.