DIY Crib Bumpers

After making the crib skirt last week, I have been so anxious to get started on the bumpers.  I have looked and looked for tips and tutorials and some I have liked a lot, but most of those had piping on them and I honestly didn't know if I was capable of making them with piping.  It didn't look hard, but a couple of bloggers did say it was tedious.  So I just kinda ended up doing my own thing.  I did reference this blog though for certain answers to questions that arose.

I had two yards of the floral fabric I wanted to use, but didn't really have anything for the "backside" of the bumpers.  Since we live a good 45 min away from the nearest open fabric store, I hopped in the car and went to Wal-Mart.  It's not my favorite place, but it would have to do if I was going to get these bumpers done any time soon.  Our Wal-Mart does have pre-cut fabric in two yard sections.  I found a hot pink that went with the floral as best as any color that they had would.  I didn't want to use hot pink, but now that they are done, I'm so glad I went with it.  By the way, I got all of my fabric for the bedding at Hobby Lobby with the exception of the hot pink.

I'm going to try to explain how I did these the best I can, but I'm sure I'll leave something out.  If anyone would have questions (and I don't know why you be asking me, honestly) you can email me and I'll answer!

I started by measuring the crib to see how long each side needed to be.  I made 4 separate bumpers.  Some tutorials you see has them in 6 sections and a lot of store bought bumpers, like the ones we had for Lila, are just one big bumper that goes all the way around.  I liked the look best of the all the way around ones, BUT there was no way I as going to be able to make that look good, so the next best thing was 4 sections.

My crib measured 51" wide and 27" deep.  So for the front and back I needed 52" including the 1/2" seam on both ends.  For the sides I needed 28" including the 1/2 " seam on both ends.  I also knew that I wanted my bumpers to be 10" tall, so I measured 11" to include the seam.  Now, I will say that I kinda wish I would've gone with an extra inch on the width, but I'm not crying over it.  They still look good.

So I made the cuts to 8 pieces of fabric, 4 floral and 4 hot pink, a front and back for each bumper.  I ironed the fabric to make all of the nasty wrinkles, which were especially bad in the hot pink because it was wrapped so tight since it was pre-measured and put into packaging and then started pinning up the seams.

Now I'm going to tell you that I think I probably could've cut about two hours out of my project if I just wanted a regular seam with the two fabrics.  A seam like a pillow case or the one you see in the tutorial I linked above, but of course I had to make things hard.  I wanted a seam like you can see (kind of) below. So I had to (and I did learn a little bit more each time I made a section on how to make the next one a little easier.  Essentially, I had to measure a 1/2" seam 8, I'll say it again, 8 times for each section.  It got a little tiring.

Once I stitched up 3 of the four sides of the bumper, I then got out my quilt batting and eyeballed the measurements of that and then stuffed it in there.  Quilt batting was the best thing I could find to do the stuffing.  I found some memory foam type stuffing that actually looked like it could work, but it was more expensive and I just wasn't sure if it would work for me...being a first timer on this bumper stuff. 

Once I had stuffed it up, I re-pinned that side and stitched it up.  I also read in the blog above that IF she ever made bumpers again, she would use ribbon to tie them on instead of making the ties out of the fabric that she used for the bumpers.  After seeing that I was going to have to measure, cut, and stitch up 28 ties, I very quickly decided that I would just use the ribbon AND cut a few corners and just do 6 ties for each front and back and 4 for the sides.  I stitched the ribbon to the appropriate places on the bumper and that was that!  They were done!

I don't know where I saw this idea of flipping the back bumper the with the "back" facing forward, but I really liked and decided to do it and I'm glad I did.  I really like how it looks.

I feel like the stuffing may be a little scant on the front right side, but I'm not sure that I will be cutting it open and stuffing more in.  I think I'll just call it a lesson learned and see if I can tie it a little differently to make it look better.  All in all, I'm VERY happy with how they turned out.  This is the first time I've ever taken on a project like this and I'm quite proud of myself for not only finishing it, but finishing it successfully!  To see how I made the crib skirt, check out this post!

DIY Crib Skirt

I knew that I didn't want to spend a ton of money on the crib bedding this time (last time we got it as a gift from my girlfriends, but I remember how expensive it was) so I started looking into other options, i.e. making my own.  I found a couple of tutorials on Pinterest and used a really easy one that I really thought was manageable.  The title of this blog post really caught my eye and this is what I ended up going with.  I looked at it and thought, yep...I can do this!  I had three different patterns of material because originally I was going to do a ruffled crib skirt.  I have made a ruffled Christmas Tree skirt, but that was so easy using hot glue!  I knew I didn't want to use hot glue on this and I also knew that I didn't want to spend any extra money experimenting and have to go buy more material.  I wasn't confident enough in making ruffles for this big of a project.  The changing of the plan of what kind of skirt I was going to do kinda threw a wrench in my plan and I wasn't sure if the amount of material I got for each pattern was going to work.  But I just started it and got as much done as I could.

These are the three patterns I chose.  I was really excited once I finally picked them out!  I decided on the chevron stripes and the polka dots for the skirt and the floral for the bumper.

I really liked this simple style of skirt so I attempted it.  I liked the idea of a different pattern at the bottom and I did have three patterns.  I think this bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids.

I had to write my plan all out to make sure I made the cuts right and you will see later that my pregnancy brain really set in with this.  I ended up wasting some material, but that's all part of the experience, right??  :)

The top rectangle is the front of the crib and the one on the bottom is the sides of the crib.  The piece of material that I had was just short of being long enough to span the entire 53" that I needed so I ended up making that into two separate pieces, which is kind of what the picture above looked like.

So I got the two front sides all measured and cut AND pinned, then I remembered that I was going to put the polka dot material on the bottom.  (palm, meet forehead) DUH!  So then I had to take off my shoes and use my toes for the math and recalculate everything.  This is where my mom will tell you that I've never been great at general math.

I remeasured, re-cut and got everything pinned to be ready to sew.  I wasted a little material trying to get chevron stripes to match up as best as possible (another lesson learned).  Then came the easy part, the sewing!

I got so into the project that I forgot to take many pictures during the process, but most of the pictures on the blog that I got the tutorial from are pretty accurate to what I did, with the exception of the bottom piece of material with the different pattern.

I sewed up the seams on all four sides of the pieces and then got some ribbon that I had on hand and sewed those pieces of ribbon to the tops of the sections to tie them to the springs.  I think that the binder clips in the tutorial will actually work much better for my crib because of the way the springs are under the mattress.

I got the front and one side finished that night.  With the "mess-ups" that I had I think I'm going to have to go get another half yard to make the other side of the skirt, but I think it will go fairly quickly since I now know what I'm doing.  My friend Sarah gave me several of her crib sheets from her girls and I went with one that was light pink and white stripes.  Next I'm going to be tackling the bumpers with the floral material.

I was getting pretty nervous about how it would all go together but I held it up last night and I think it will look amazing!  I'm really excited about how the pinks, oranges, and yellows will pop and really "work" with the other colors I have.  Stay tuned for the DIY Crib Bumper post to come soon!  I would really like to get this finished pretty soon!

"You make me so happy"

Oh my.  Lila has been a nut lately.  "Cause" is her new word.  She hardly ever uses it correctly in a sentence, but she gets her head moving and her attitude going and it's "cause" this and "cause" that.  Anytime I ask her to do something, after a yes or no comes out of her mouth, it's followed by a "cause" and brief explanation as to why that was her answer.  This explanation almost always has nothing to do with what we were talking about to begin with.

Now this morning we were in the car on the way to school and I was asking her what she thought she might do at school today.  "Cause my friends not there, Momma".  I told her that they would probably be there today and that they would have lots of fun playing.  Then there were the words that just make you feel so special to be a mother!  "Momma, you make so happy.  Cause, I'm missing my pieces.  My friends...cause my pieces at school not there."  It could've just broken my heart that her "pieces" are missing.  I mean, I guess I never really thought how good of friends you can have at that age.  Turns out that her friend Ky'Lynn really wasn't at school yesterday.  :(  But it made me feel better that I make her so happy.  I'm so hormonal, I'm quite shocked that I didn't start crying.

That's my little Lila bit for today.

For my kids

Growing up, we listened to a lot of music.  I have very few memories of when I was a little kid and I really don't know why that is, but most of what I remember is music related.  Dancing to records that Dad had on old albums or belting out our favorite songs with Mom in the car when she would pick us up to go somewhere.  Over the years, there have been several songs that have meant something to me.  My mom has a habit of turning song lyrics into a sappy entry for a card on big occasions.  i.e. confirmation, college graduation, you get the drift...

For my Confirmation, my mom included the lyrics from I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack.  I still think about my mom every time I hear that song.

For my college graduation, it was Rascal Flatts', My Wish.  Again, I always think of her, but now I cry when I hear it because I think, "wow, that's what I wish for Lila too".

So I've been watching the show Parenthood by suggestion of my good friend Sarah.  I have seen the show before, but have not kept up.  I decided that I would start watching it from the beginning a couple weeks ago and OMG!  I love it.  One thing I always look forward to every episode is the song selection that they choose.  They always always always have awesome tunes.  The theme song is Forever Young by Bob Dylan.  Bob Dylan is pretty amazing and seems like you can listen to most of his songs and get a good meaning out of them.  Now every time I watch an episode, I immediately think of Lila and baby sister and them growing up and it makes me happy and sad.

So this post is for them (and any other kids we decide to have, LOL)!

Forever Young by Bob Dylan

May God bless and keep you always

May your wishes all come true

May you always do for others

And let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung

May you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young

May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous

May you grow up to be true

May you always know the truth

And see the lights surrounding you

May you always be courageous

Stand upright and be strong

May you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young

May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy

May your feet always be swift

May you have a strong foundation

When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful

May your song always be sung

May you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young

May you stay forever young

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/forever-young#ixzz2JOoVjBJr

New Beginnings

I decided that with new things in our horizon that I needed to adjust my blog accordingly.  I never really liked "Here Comes Baby Girl" and especially with"Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" all over the TV these days, I just really want to get away from it now.  I started thinking of all things little girl and this is what I came up with.  I plan on keeping much of the content the same, however, little sister will be taking up her residence in this blog as well when she gets here.  I hope everyone continues to read as I *think* things are going to get a lot more interesting in coming months!  :)

I'm now 24 weeks pregnant and actually feeling great!  I'm still able to work out, run, and spin and am so glad since it gives me a chance to get away from everything when I do this.  I haven't been a diligent about taking pictures this time around, but I will have Neil get a belly shot tonight.  I'd like to generate some comparisons from my pregnancy with Lila and with this baby.  That may not be a good thing... :)

I had my glucose test yesterday at my checkup and I was a little nervous.  As you may remember, I had some trouble around this time with my last pregnancy.  You can read my post about it here.  I haven't had any "episodes" like that this time, so I'm hoping to keep it that way.  I just got the call and I passed the screening with flying colors.  Whew...  Next appointment in 4 weeks the twice a month after that!  This is when it seems to start flying by...until that screeching halt around 36 weeks when you think you will NEVER deliver a baby.

Happy Hump-day everyone!!!

Officially Potty Trained

I am proud to say that we are 100% potty trained. We were so blessed to have Lila potty trained in July. She showed interested earlier than we expected so we just went with it. Se has, however, been sleeping in pull-ups this whole time. No matter how much we limited her liquid intake, she would still almost always wake up pretty wet. I noticed a couple mornings about 3 weeks ago that she had gotten up dry, but just thought it was a fluke. She stayed at my Mom's the next night and I forgot a pull-up. My considerate mother so cleverly thought that a poise pad would be just the same. LOL I am still laughing at that. That's beside the point...she woke up dry again. It was at that point that I thought we would try panties to bed that night. We have been watching what she drinks before bed every night and so far so good. We haven't had an accident yet!! I'm not counting it out. I know better than that. We're just doing our best in trying to get her to pee before she really gets to sleep, if she fell asleep without us getting her on the potty.

I'm so happy about this. Having her potty trained before having another baby was something that was very important to me. I really didn't want two kids in diapers for multiple reasons!

You can read here how we started the potty training process.  I will say I highly recommend naked time.

It's a .......

Lila is very excited!