Nursery Sewing Projects

Finding bedding or other nursery items was been difficult as I chose untraditional colors... dark turquoise and golden yellow.  I gave up any hopes of finding anything I would like already made, and as I have some sewing skills I decided to make everything myself.  I bought a few different fabrics from fabric.com.


First I made a crib skirt out of Premier Prints Indoor/Outdoor ZigZag Blue Moon.  I chose an indoor/outdoor fabric in part because I was able to find several prints in the same color that I liked, and partly because I figured it would hold up better over time.  Another nice bonus was that it was a bit wider than cotton prints (54 inches wide instead of 44 inches wide).  When I first got the fabric I was a little nervous because it was stiff and a bit scratchy, but after pre-washing everything, it was much softer and exactly what I wanted.


The crib skirt was a piece of cake.  I measured how far away from the ground the crib mattress springs would be when it is in its lower position, and added 2 inches.  One inch was for the hem, and one inch was to allow extra to fold over and Velcro to the metal mattress springs.  I got some cheap adhesive Velcro at Dollar General, 16" for $1, and it worked great.  I also measured how wide the front and sides of the crib were.  For the front panel it worked out perfectly from selvedge to selvedge with a couple of inches for overlap on each side.  For the sides, it was also perfect if I cut the fabric in half.  A nice perk was that since I planned on attaching the front first and wrapping the edges around (which would be hidden by the side panels) I didn’t have to hem the sides so I just left the selvedge in place.  For the side panels I hemmed only one side (where I cut it in half), which became the side that showed in the front.  The other side (the selvedge) wrapped around the back and out of sight.  Total time to make and attach to the crib: less than an hour.

I also made a changing pad cover out of some of the fabric I purchased.  For the changing pad cover I used Premier Prints Indoor/Outdoor Polka Dot Blue Moon.  I basically just followed the tutorial at Prudent Baby, and it took about an hour and a half.  I probably could make it faster, but I was distracted by watching Once Upon a Time while I made it.

It basically fits like a sheet.  It is fitted around the top and has elastic around the bottom so that it is easy to take off to wash.

Now that we've actually been using it, we realized how often "accidents" happen even while on the changing table.  We didn't want to have to wash the changing pad every time, so I cut out a rectangle of white vinyl to put on top so we can just wipe it up.  I found the white vinyl in the outdoor tablecloth section of Hancock Fabrics, and it was really cheap (I got a yard for about $4).

I love seeing the nursery come together!  I have a few more nursery sewing projects to share soon, and I'll have some pictures of the finished nursery!