How to Make a Radiator Cover for a Diesel Truck Part 1

You might wonder why on Earth I am posting a tutorial on how to make a radiator cover for a diesel truck on our cutesy girly craft blog.  The main reason is because when my husband asked me to make one for his truck I couldn't find a single "how-to" anywhere online!  So for all the guys (or guys' wives) out there looking for a "how to" on this subject, here you go!

This particular cover is made to fit a 1996 Ford F-250, however, it would not be hard to make adjustments to fit your own truck.  On average these covers cost about $60, so far in this project I have spent $5 and plan on maybe spending another $15 for the snaps.

**The fabric I used is called Pro-Tuff Outdoor and it's sold at Wal-mart for about $5 a yard.
It's canvas on one side and I'm going to say Vinyl on the other side, I'm not 100% sure what material it is, but it's sturdy and a great quality for the price.  I tried taking a pic, you can sort of see the difference in texture between the front and back in the picture.

First use a large piece of paper or poster board to trace and cut out a template of half your trucks grill

(I made my husband do this part, a screw up in size was not going to be my fault!)

Next fold your fabric so it has 2 layers and line up the top of your template with the fold (you will not cut the top), trace your template onto the fabric, add an additional inch on each of the two sides and the bottom for seam allowances.  Reverse the template and trace a second pattern for the other half of your grill.

(Once it is sewn, as pic below, it will be just a little larger than it needs to be, better safe than sorry right?)

Fold in the two sides and bottom about 1/4 inch and pin.  Sew using a triple straight stitch around the edges to create a nice and sturdy seam.

Repeat with the other side.

Throughout this process (after cutting and after stitching the first) I made sure that they were still a good fit on the grill so I didn't have to fix more than necessary.

For the moment they should look like this:

The centers will overlap by about 1 to 2 inches and will be secured together with either velcro or snaps.

That's as far as we got tonight;

My husband is going to use some snap screws to attach it, once they arrive.  

We had to order those from Cabela's, it seems they are the only place that sells them!

Once they arrive I'll post the other half of this tutorial and add a link to the bottom of this post.

*Edited*

To access the second part of this post click Here!