More Nursery Sewing - Crib Set

I've been doing some more sewing for the nursery... slowly, and as I've felt up to it.  Here's what I've finished in the last week or so.  If you remember, here was the inspiration picture for the crib bedding:

The crib that we have is one that Jim's mom found yard-saling.  It has these kickbars on the bottom as a mechanism for dropping the crib sides. 

Useful, but kind of ugly - and the way that they are positioned pushes the bedskirt out of alignment.  We were going to trade the crib for a different one that Jim's mom had also found, but I think that I figured out a way to make it work...  I added another panel to the skirt, making it look like a box pleat.  It covers most of the kickbar and makes it far less objectionable.

I also made a cribsheet out of brown gingham.  I'm not sure I like the gingham next to the ticking stripes of the skirt.  It might grow on me.  I'll probably make a few more fitted sheets out of off-white or dark brown fabric.  It was super easy to make... I just followed this tutorial, except I sewed lastin elastic around the entire edge, instead of just the corners.

The hardest piece was the bumper pads.  Yes, I know there is debate on whether you should even actually have these due to SIDS concerns, but I kept the padding to a minimum, and it was just too cute to resist.  If I were to make this again, I'd construct it a little differently to make the sewing come out cleaner, but an infant isn't going to know the difference, and most people won't even see what the issues are.  The monkeys in the fabric I bought seem to be smaller than the ones in the inspiration picture.  Maybe they came out with a different version of the print.  It still looks fine to me.

Here's the finished bedding. 

I think it turned out cute.  It was more work than buying a set, but I like the monkeys better than any of the sets I saw, and I was able to make it for far less than what the sock monkey bedding was priced anywhere I found it on-line.

I still have plans to re-stain or paint the crib.  My plan was to paint it white like the inspiration photo, and to match the glider.  But maybe a dark stain would look good too?...

Refreshed Glider

So about 2 weeks ago I went on "modified bedrest", so even the mild projects I planned on doing have been downscaled.  Now,  I really feel like the only project stuff I can do is sew.  It drives me a little crazy - especially when I see something that should be done, and I can't do anything about it for the next 3 1/2 months...  The curse of being a Type A!!!  But I can deal with it for the little one.

The good news is that I am now under doctor's orders to work from home, so that does give me a little *extra* time to sew - not to mention the money I save in gas (I normally commute 50 miles each way)

My fabric came in Tuesday, so here's what I did the last couple of days.  Remember this little Craiglist purchase:

Well, here it is now:

All ready to coordinate with sock monkey cribbing!

In brief, I didn't use a pattern.  I just took the old covers off and cut out fabric in that shape, adding a seam allowance.  Then I just kind of fit the fabric around the cushions, pin, and sew.  I added welt cording because I think that makes it look more professional.  And I made the seat bottom "box" style - because I think it's easier to fit the strange shape, it looks nicer, and that's the style I have experience making.  The seat bottom uses a zipper in the back and the seat back opens at the bottom, so both can be thrown in the wash when they're dirty. 

And I also added some ties to the seat back to attach it to the glider. 

Luckily, I had some extra cording and an extra upholstery zipper from a past slipcover project...  though it made me a little sad because it still had the Fabric Place tag on it - just a reminder of how fabulous that store was, and how junky JoAnnes (or Ho-Annes, as my husband calls it) is.

But in true Tiffany form, the seat back is only 90% done - well, maybe 95%...  I didn't use a zipper because it wouldn't construct quite right.  My plan is to just put snaps in it to close it at the bottom, but I don't have snaps or a pair of snap pliers yet.  I plan to get a nice pair & finish this, but we'll see how that actually turns out.  No one sees that part, and safety pins do the job for now anyway!

Nursery Musings

It's very late (or very early in the morning) and I'm still awake with projects rumbling through my head and a baby kicking in my belly.

So, as I described in the last post, we are going to convert the guest bedroom into the nursery. A few things are starting to come together.

Jim's mom picked up a crib for us while yard-saling. She also got a changing station. Actually, she found 2 of both and let us pick. We sort of eenie-meenie-minie-mo-ed and chose the lighter of the 2. I'm thinking we'll paint it white.

We started trolling Craigslist and found this glider/rocker for $25. It's already white, and I should be able to recover the cushion fairly easily.

Then I think we should move Jim's big dresser into our room and clear out the smaller white one that's currently in our room. It would probably look pretty good in the nursery also. It's functional, but a big pain in the butt to slide some of the drawers in and out. Maybe I can see if there's something from Rockler to help remedy that situation.

As I was creating a baby registry/buying reminder list on Amazon, I came across this bedding and thought it was pretty cute. Plus, I love the way the really dark wood that is in the guest room now goes with the blue color of the walls, and this crib set brings that chocolate color back in. And who doesn't like monkeys???
But then I was surfing around this site today contemplating what I could do to cover the unattractive cushion for the car seat we recently got, and I found this sock monkey bedding. It also has the chocolate and the monkeys - but in a less "cutesy" way - probably more our style. A little more searching, and it looks like the sock monkey fabric is easily available on line... it's a totally do-able project.

Maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew right now, but chances are pretty good, after a visit to the doctor this week, that I'll likely be on bedrest for some of the remaining period of this pregnancy. And definitely working reduced hours from home this week. Besides, it's sort of my normal mode to bite off more than I can chew...

In other news, Jim seems to be getting closer to a garage addition. He spoke with a contractor who gave us a very reasonable bid. Lower than we were expecting. He said he could have it up before winter. We were originally planning to do it next spring, but with the lower bid, it's possible to consider for this fall. That would be nice for Jim. Then he can get back to working on his '36 here at home instead of keeping it in a rented shop that he no longer has time to get to.

The REAL reason I haven't done anything this summer... I'm PREGNANT!

That's right, folks! 18 weeks now and counting... It's sort of at the point where I can't disguise it very well anymore, so the jig is up, so to speak. As far as the house goes, it's like a curse and a blessing. A curse because it really bugs me to see all the exterior paint that still needs to be shaved, but a blessing because I actually have to relax a little! I'm playing it safe because there is DEFINITELY lead in that peeling exterior paint, and it's best just to save that for another time. (ya, like when there's a baby crawling around getting his hands in the lead paint dust!... just kidding)

I think when most people are pregnant, they get all excited about putting together a nursery. But to them, all that means is picking paint, spreading it on the walls, and buying some new baby furniture. Maybe add in a few decorative items. So simple and quaint! Well, it's just not quite like that for us. First, we have to figure out where the nursery will go. And then, depending on where we pick, it could mean some major work. Here's our options:

1. Change the already mostly complete guest room over.
Advantages with this room - it's on the same floor as our bedroom and would be the simplest conversion, meaning walls, ceiling, floors, electric, and lights are already done - the most like a normal person's nursery project. Disadvantages - we can't fit a crib AND a guest bed in that room, so the guest bed needs a new location. Plus, there's no heat in that room, so we'd need to get some kind of space heater or other solution.

2. Fix up the attic space above the kitchen. Advantages with this room - it would be on the same floor as our bedroom (circled in yellow). Disadvantages - everything else. The room is poorly insulated, if insulated at all. All the walls would have to be demo-ed, electricity wiring and insulation added, new drywall put up, a new floor put in, the window would need to be repaired and have a storm window added, plus we would have to deal with the sloping ceiling. We thought about adding some cute cubbies or something to the kneewalls, but the time the built-ins would be put in, the room becomes very long and very narrow. Plus, as with option 1, there's no heat in this room. Not to mention the weird entry into this room. You have to go through the bathroom, into the "closet room" and through another doorway (follow the blue arrows).

3. Fix up the attic space above the main house. There are really 2 options within this option:

3a. Create the attic space we actually want. Advantages - it would really improve the useable space of the house and up the resale value. We would knock out the walls between the 2 rooms:


and



and create one bigger room. It could be a room that could actually become a child's room/playroom. There is a perfect space at the window to create the window seat/bookshelf unit I would love to have. Disadvantages - it would have to be some major work - demo some walls, repair and open up the stairway , add some electric and lighting, lay down a new floor, deal with a chimney smack in the middle of the room, actually make the window seat built-in. Then the major disadvantage is that we would have to walk up and down the stairs every time the baby wakes up.

3b. Just fix up one of the attic rooms. This could be fairly simple. Advantages - the walls are in decent shape, so it could just be some minor wall repair, painting, a couple of outlets, and a rug. This is also the best repaired original window in the house. Disadvantages - again, it would still be on a different floor. And with the knee walls, it's pretty small.

After humming and hawing (as my father would say) over all these options, I think we have decided to do option 1 and move the guest room bed up to option 3b. That should be the simplest for us.

It would be nice to have option 3a for the longer run, though. But that will probably have to give way to the future phase 1 garage addition and phase 2 garage/house connector with a mudroom (potentially including a kitchen and 2nd floor additions) Hey, it's nice to dream, at least!