Nontoxic Car Seat Cover

May 29, 2018, by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Suzie

Hi Debra,

We purchased conversion van yr 2013 Have had the carpets steam cleaned without any fragrances in the van but still smelling some will try the non-toxic in Vairo clean over top…

However the seats are leather and of course treated… I haven’t even been able to ride in the van since we purchased it two years ago. We used sheepskin seat covers and our last fan to help hide the smell of the seats and had to wash them many times to get some of the odor out. Any recommendations for nontoxic car seat sea covers ?

Appreciate any input thank you!

Debra's Answer

Yes, actually.

I would make custom seat covers. And these are not as difficult as it sounds.

In fact, when I had my Fiat X 1/9 I took it to a auto upholsterer and had them make new custom seat covers from the cotton canvas I provided. And they were great.

But you could also have an auto upholsterer make COVERS for your seats that you would put over the existing covers.

Plain cotton canvas won’t block outgassing.

But you could put a layer of foil-backed polyethylene plastic that would block, or a layer of carbon felt that would adsorb emissions from the car interior.

Toxic-Free Q&A

These are archives of Q&A asked by readers and answered by Debra Lynn Dadd (from 2005-2019) or Lisa Powers (from 2019-2020). Answers have been edited and updated as of December, 2020.