Crib Bumper Tutorial

Remember when I mention about this fabric that I ordered?



It's the Chipper in Charcoal Slub from Premiere Prints. I decided to use it for one side of the crib bumper that I wanted to make for the arrival of baby #2, which we've found to be a boy this time!

While I do love blue, I'm just not into anything Pooh related, too modern or anything frilly for this little cowboy, so this is what I decided on. 

So, onto the Tutorial.

I know that some people may just say "geesh, why didn't you just buy one", but it was pretty inexpensive to do it myself and I am a pretty big DIYer, so I decided to tackle this. Blame it on the nesting or my overabundance of options, but this is now complete, so I can at least say I accomplished it...and before the baby is born no less! 

First I decided to use Teagan's old crib bumper as the cushion. It was practically brand new and I loved the dimensions and weight to it. This was so much easier than starting from scratch with batting and stuffing.

So with all 150 inches of it, IN ONE PIECE, I got to cutting. I laid it out on the floor over my fabric and cut around it as a template. Keep your fabric and your bumper double folded so that you have less length to cut/work with.

I did this with both fabrics, since I used a different pattern on each side. If your fabric is not long enough (mine wasn't) you'll need to peice together and cut accordingly. I decided to do this at the corners where the crib bends. This also depends on which way your pattern goes and take into account where the repeat is.

Now you'll need to make your ties. I decided to work in the blue here, so I made each tie. You could also use grosgrain ribbon or anything premade to be easier, but no, I chose the long route.

I cut my strips to be 3"x12.5" because I wanted larger, oversized ties. Once cut out, place right sides together and sew leaving one end open. You will need to turn them right side out and then fold under the unfinished end's corners and stitch shut. At the end, the iron is your friend. You'll then have 24 of these bad boys...





Now comes the fun part. Matching up where you need the ties to go and pinning it all together. I used the placement of where her ties already were as a template. Easy peasy? Not exactly. While placing the right sides of the fabric together, you'll need to pin the ties FACING IN so that when you turn the right sides out, the ties are on the right side. If you can't use an old bumper as a template, you can measure where you'd like them to go in your crib. I don't know why this part was so hard for me, just a lot of math and trying to think while you're timing when your 2 year old will be up from their nap and running around to ask "mommy, what you doin'? and I want to help!"  It should look something like this...





Once it's all placed together, stich it up, leaving one open end. Now comes the REALLY fun part. Stuffing all 150 inches into this beauty. After a few grunts, sweat a few times of questioning your sanity on why you did this again, you'll have a perfectly sized bumper slipped over another. Then fold under the open end and stich closed.

So after 5.5 hours later, your hard work paid off and you now have exactly what you want!

I am loving the mix of the charcoal greys (there not black if your monitor is showing that) mixed with the light blue. So mixed with the grey walls, some more fabrics that will be used and some antique finds, I'm getting excited to complete this room.

The final pics are coming soon...when I can get a good day of light in the room since we've gotten almost 2 feet of snow in 2 days...and it's still coming...I may have to wait just a few...

Oh...and she did wake up from her nap finally to help! ;)