Nursery Project - The rest of the crib furnishings

This post is a continuation of the nursery project I have been describing.  I have covered the valence and pillows and the comforter in the two previous posts.  Here I will wrap up the rest of the crib furnishings - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, ruffled pillow, and rail pad!

The skirt was made from a beautiful gold fabric.  It was to be long enough to puddle slightly, and fairly full, with box pleats.

I folded up, ironed, and pinned the double 2" hem.  The hem was finished with an iron-on adhesive so stitching would not show on the front of the fabric.

 The sides were hemmed in a similar fashion, using a narrow double fold.

A crib skirt has four panels - one for each side and one each for the head and foot - attached to a rectangular fabric the size of the crib mattress.  I calculated, pinned, and basted the box pleats for each of the four panels of the skirt so the panels would fit the sides and ends of the crib.

The crib skirt, hung over a corner of my work table.

I determined the length needed based on the highest mattress position described in the specs for the crib, plus two inches.  When the mattress is lowered as the baby gets older, the skirt can just puddle more or the top can be tucked in farther underneath the mattress.



The top edge of the bumpers and the edging around the pillows call for a 1.5" folded gold satin ruffle.

 I went ahead and cut 4" strips enough for all the ruffles and sewed them together end to end.  Here you can see that I have folded the strips in half and pressed.  Then I serged the entire raw edge.

Fortunately, I have a ruffle attachment that makes ruffles easier!  I ruffled the entire length of sewn-together strips in one go.







 For the bumpers, we used a foam insert kit you can find at fabric stores.  It consists of six 26" long foam pieces.


Each section required cutting pieces for the front and back, attaching a ruffle to the top, sewing the front to the back, and sewing velcro to the lower edge.

Here you can see the lower edge with the velcro closure.  This will allow removing the cover for washing.

This is a closeup of the loops that will be used to tie the bumpers to the crib.  Originally, the bumpers were going to use red ties, and I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to wash red ties with the white fabric!  The ties will be separate and will go through the loops and around the crib rails to secure the bumpers.



The six bumpers.









My client decided to use long gold satin ties on the two front upper corners (shown here) and simpler ties for the other ten tie locations.







I made the simple ties somewhat like you would for double-fold bias tape, only not cut on the bias.  I took a 1.25" strip and ironed the edges in, the folded it half and sewed down the edge.





I finished the ends with a special fabric glue to keep them from fraying.

  The pillow is a 14" x 18" feather pillow, with satin ruffles around.  I used an envelope closure, with velcro to hold it together.

The finished pillow.









The rail pad is meant to cover the top of the crib rail, both to protect the rail and to provide a comfortable edge to anyone reaching into the crib.  It is 50" long and 8" tall (after being folded over the rail), with a double ruffle.  After attaching the ruffles to the lower edge of the upper side, it is sandwiched with the under side and batting, sewn and serged.  Leaving an opening, of course!

 
 The rail pad, turned right side out.  I marked two lines down the center, 1" apart, and sewed to make it bend over the rail and help it stay in place.















The rail pad, folded.  You can see the ties incorporated into the front and back to hold the rail pad in place.

All of these items will be put together in the nursery room in Georgia.  Pictures have been promised, after the crib arrives and the room is ready.  I am looking forward to seeing it all put together, and will of course post the pictures for you!

Nursery Project - A Comforter fit for a Prince or Princess!

This post continues the story of the nursery project I have been working on.  This is a Chronicles of Narnia themed nursery, in cream, gold, and red.  The previous post described the valence and pillows.  In this post I describe the baby's comforter, with other crib furnishings to be described in a later post.

The comforter is to be 42" x 52", in cream with a 4" gold band around the top and evenly-spaced tufts..  Centered on the top is to be a gold crown applique.

The first step was to wash all the fabrics.  After all, this is for a baby!

To prepare the top, I cut a smaller rectangle out of the cream and 5" wide strips for the bands. I used strips that were longer than the inside rectangle so that I could miter the corners.

After preparing the top, I will add the crown applique.  The applique was by far the most time-consuming part!

 Meeting with my client, we browsed crown images on the Internet and chose one for the comforter.  It was to be about 12" wide at the base, and centered on the top, with landscape orientation.

I took the image, about 1.5" wide originally, and blew it up to the desired size.  On the left, you can see it has been traced onto light double-sided adhesive paper made for applique work.  I took this piece and adhered it to the wrong side of the gold satin with an iron.

The next tedious step was to carefully cut out the design!

 Here is the cut-out design, with the adhesive backing removed, positioned on the comforter.  Take a minute and admire the scissor workmanship!!

 This is the design after it has been adhered.  It is beautiful and perfect just like this.  However, it would not stay that way.  If I wanted to, I could pick at it and start peeling up the design.  Leaving it like this would work only where it would never be touched or washed!  To keep it safe, I will have to sew around all the edges.

Here you can see the design after I have sewn around all the edges.  I also treated the edges with a treatment that will keep the edges from fraying and threads from loosening.






Now, back to putting the comforter together.

Here is the under side of the top, with the mitered gold bands shown.  In preparing to stitch the top to the under side of the comforter, I am marking the exact width of the band based on the stitching line attaching the band to the inside rectangle.  This ensures the band is a uniform width around the comforter.   Actually, I set up this picture after I did the sewing, but needed to show how the marks were done.




 I stitched just inside the marked line, turning where the bands met in the corner.  Of course, I leave an opening to turn the comforter right side out later.

To fit the batting to the comforter, I laid it over the wrong side of the top, aligning two edges and cutting the other edges to fit.

I then pinned the batting to the wrong side of the top (which is already sewn to the under side of the comforter), flipped it over, and sewed all around (except for the opening), following the same line of stitching used to attached the top and under sides of the comforter.  Finally, I serged all around.

 Turning the comforter right-side-out, I pressed it and hand-closed the opening.  Here you can see the pins marking where the tufts will be.  I sewed the tufts by hand.

 The finished comforter - needing another round of pressing!

It's weird how the camera skews proportions at a distance.  The comforter looks square, but is actually ten inches longer left to right.

A close-up of the crown.

This fabric has worked well - the cream feels good to the touch, and the satin is like liquid gold.  I think it will look beautiful in the nursery!

Start of the Nursery Project - Valence and Pillows

Another recent, but not-so-little project was to create the furnishings for a baby nursery!  Somehow, knowing these things were for a baby's room made the project all that more enjoyable!

I first met with the mother-to-be to discuss designs, then accompanied her to the fabric store to look at materials.  The theme she chose was "Chronicles of Narnia," and was to include iconic imagery from the series, including lions, crowns, lamppost, children in the woods, and quotes.  The colors she had in mind were cream, gold, and red.  

We found some gorgeous fabrics in cream and gold for crib furnishings, and a beautiful heavy red and gold chenille with a medieval look we thought would coordinate well.

We decided to use the patterned fabric for a valence and two pillows, which I describe in this post. 

The valence was to be hung from a 4" board, with box pleats on each end.  We decided to insert the heavier gold fabric inside the two pleats.    

The first step was to place a strip of the gold fabric in the place needed to be inside the pleat.

The next steps were cutting and preparing the lining, sewing it to the back of the main fabric (hemming the bottom edge and sides at the same time), then making the pleats and basting the entire top edge.

I stapled it to the top of a prepared board* and edged it with some cording made from the same fabric.  I tacked the pleats slightly to keep them from swinging open.  (*A board is prepared by covering it in lining fabric.  After stapling on the valence and cording, the lining fabric folds over to hide the staples and make it look tidy.)

Here it is posing on a filing cabinet for a picture.  We will have to wait for pictures of it installed - the home is in another state!

The pillows are 22" feather pillows.  They are edged in self cording, with zipper closures.

I just love feather pillows.  They have such a luxurious feel, and will always fluff up beautifully, with never a lump!

The rest of the project - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, comforter, pillow, and rail pad - will be covered in following posts!