Baby Adanna's Nursery_The Bumper

First of all (don't say go down low) Lol. First of all, let me show you one or two sample images of a bumper.

 



Now you get the picture of what I am going to create next.
The basic element of the bumper is the inner stuff or call it foam if you like. I and hubby got it at Aba. He personally selected the inch size I finally used, which would make the bed look more like the second picture above. I had the first picture in mind. Anyways, am glad he chose the foam size I finally used because at the end I had something in between the first and second picture.

I cut the foam to size after I used my tape to measure the inner length and width of the cot so that I have 2 long and 2 short sides. After I placed them inside the cot, they appeared to cover the whole inner part of the cot. Hubby suggested I make it lower to allow for air flow.


I did not do a snapshot after I had made the 4 sides lower. Picture above is of the initial height of the bumper.
The next step was to cover the individual 4 sections, leaving a hole for inserting the foam.

Baby Adanna's Nursery_My Inspiration for the Cot

I love early preparation so much because of the fulfilling feeling it leaves with you at the end. I was so eager that I started quite early putting together things for the Baby cot project. Sighting the wooden cot outside at the 'yard sale' set the ball rolling. Thank God for my hubby accepting and trusting my judgement almost all of the time. We bought the bed and then i started browsing.
Check out 2 of my inspirations below:

Baby Adanna's Nursery_The duvey/bedsheet

Making the bed sheet was one of the easiest and fastest of all the cot making process.

Let's just get down to how I did it. More pictures than talking:

The materials I selected to use; I wanted to make 2:


 The 1/4 inch foam I used; already cut to size. I cut it to fit perfectly into the base of the cot.




Now lets go to the machine to put them permanently together :). Begin by sewing diagonally. It was easier with the blue material than with the pink because all I had to do with the blue material was to follow the polka dots and that helped to make my diagonal sewing straight.






 
 After making your straight diagonals, we now sew across the diagonals
  
 to create uniform diagonal squares.


 Done with the cross sewing. Now time to trim with our white baby lace. Place lace in between the open edges of your sheet, folding cloths inwards to hide rough edges of cloth threads, and sew along.





























 
 
 Taraa...simple and easy. C'est finis. My completed bed baby bedsheet.
 

Baby Adanna's Nursery_The Bed, The Board and the Mattress

....ooh so excited...It's like waiting for a gift from God. I love surprises so am waiting to be surprised. How awesome to be surprised by God...in the good way of course. My chancelor would always say, those who fail to plan, plan to fail and another saying goes; preparation is the mother of success. Hence, I have been preparing so tirelessly for the coming of our baby. I have started with making the baby cot. Yes, you heard me ...making, not buying. Ok, hubby and I bought the skeleton i.e the wooden bed itself. It came without form and void...so to speak. So I am giving it a pweety form and filling all the void, well...except for the area baby Danna would lay her head. Lol. Enough of the stories...a picture is worth more than a thousand words. :)

Ok wait ... I need to add this. I love Emily Henderson. She is one of my mail role models when it comes to interior designing. House beautiful (one of my favorite decor magazines) posted on their blog about her daughter's nursery. I am a bit jealous, but I have refused to be intimidated. :( :[ stiff face and fuming.  lol. It was even titled it: You will want everything in Emily Henderson's stylish Nursery - Even if you don't have a kid. Imagine that.

Emily Henderson Nursery

 Now back to me:

Usually, I thought yard sales were only done by the whites and the likes until we moved to our new location last year and I could see along the tarred road leading to our estate, old wares displayed. This was where I sighted our baby's cot.

By now, I already took out the mattress inside and kept it aside. It had several slashes on it.
My first step towards remodeling was to paint the wood itself, white. Secondly, I covered the base of the bed with a finer material. From the picture above, you can see how worn out the color appears.
To recover the mattress,

• I tore away the covering of the old mattress  and discarded it leaving the mattress bare. Notice

the painted wood and the newly covered base at the background. The bread-like looking mattress rests on the now painted wood. The material I used to cover the base of the bed reminds of the cartoon 'The 101 Dalmatians'.

Covering the mattress took the most time of all the stages of this project.

• I went to the market (opposite oil mill - where they sew/make canopies) to buy a suitable material. I got white at the end because I did not get any baby looking design.
• I cut the material to cover the 6 sides of the mattress and started pinning. I left one side of the shorter side open so I would be able to pull out the mattress and sew up.

•  I pulled out the mattress and set aside. Now I have my exo-skeleton to sew up. N/B: Aside the pins still in place, I also used a pencil to draw lines along which I would sew. I drew the lines while the mattress was still inside the cover.

•  Now to the sewing machine (Recall I left one end open, so I could reinsert the mattress).

the one end I left open.

To the machine...to sew up other parts. Now this was the toughest part of it all. My thread kept cutting seconds apart. This was sooo frustrating. I had to buy a bigger thread. There was a tweeny little improvement but it was still frustrating. I resorted to using a big needle.



Let me explain something at this point. I wanted to sew first and trim later. By trim I mean cover the sewn edges with cloth. I made the cloth softer by inserting foam as I sew along. Now with the needle I could do all at once. Sew / trim at the same time. More like trimming/sewing - something like that.


 Part of the final work. You sha get what the whole would look like. It automatically erases the initial bread-like looking mattress from your medulla. :)


 Enough for the day. Check out my next blog for the continue. This mattress covering took over a week to complete by the way. wheeew....giving I had to touch the project after I returned from work each day - that is when I had no serious cooking to do for dinner. #singing e no easy ehh...eh he he by P square...