DIY Name Crib Bumper
AKA the infamous project that took up most of my free time!
Anyway right after we had Blue I knew I wanted to make his crib bumper and spell his name out with nautical flag letters. And considering I had no idea what I was doing, it turned out pretty nice. I just had some fit issues around the corners and had to put in some filler pieces.
So even before we were trying for Lion I knew I wanted to make crib bumpers for all of my kids. And yes I know they are totally frowned upon nowadays, but I like the way they look in the nursery and all of our children sleep in our bedroom until they are past all dangers. (Lion just turned 10 months and he's still sleeping in his co-sleeper, so I think he'll be okay with the crib bumper once we move him into his own crib)
Luckily after a little research on Pinterest I stumbled upon LeanneBarlow; Elle Apparel. Which gives a full tutorial on how to make everything you need for your crib. Along with a great tutorial on how to make a standard crib bumper. I however wanted to go a little bit further than the standard crib bumper, so I decided to place Lion's full name along the length of the crib bumper. I'm pretty sure I made ever bad decision you could when making it. But I learned a lot and had an adventure along the way.
Anyway here it is: How to make your very own Name Crib Bumper!
Here's What You Need:
High Denisty Foam Cushion (Or you can buy an old crib bumper and just make a slip cover for it)
3/8 inch Ribbon
5/8 inch Ribbon
Heavy Duty Needles or Doll Needles
5/8 inch Ribbon
Heavy Duty Needles or Doll Needles
Here's How You Do It:
Step 1: Preplaning
I find that before I can even start a project I have to have the perfect idea for what I want to achieve. Sometime while I was pregnant with Lion, I knew that for my second son I wanted to have fish swimming through coral for a crib bumper.
So with an idea in hand, the first step is to find a typography that will work with it and is not to difficult to make patterns out of. (I suggest search Pinterest because well that where I turn to when I need help finding the right solution for my crafting problems). I went with the following Typeface for Lion's crib bumper:
You could also use a font found in Microsoft Powerpoint (or Google Slides).
So with an idea in hand, the first step is to find a typography that will work with it and is not to difficult to make patterns out of. (I suggest search Pinterest because well that where I turn to when I need help finding the right solution for my crafting problems). I went with the following Typeface for Lion's crib bumper:
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| (Typeface found at ADVIZ) |
You could also use a font found in Microsoft Powerpoint (or Google Slides).
The next and most important step is to make sure you choose the right fabric. (I went with snuggle flannel for my base fabric and teal minky fabric for my letters, which if you're not making a blanket there is no need to use minky fabric).
Starting with your short side corner, stuff a small piece of foam into the hole. Using a slip stitch sew up the side. Repeat this step with the long corner side. And then finish up stuffing process placing the remaining pieces of foam into the middle sections and using a slip stitch to sew it up. Make sure as your sewing the bottom together that your letters line up appropriately.
Step 2: Prep Work
Once you have your typeface and fabric picked out, then its time to get to the nitty gritty work on making the crib bumper.
First step is to cut up your foam pad. I recommend cutting it like so. And the you keep the excess foam for other projects.
The basic measurements for the fabric are shown below.
There are a couple of different ways to cut your fabric. Since the pattern on my base fabric was width wise, I cut my fabric width wise into 27.5 x 42 inch strips. There should be 6 in total.
If you somehow find a length wise pattern or chose no pattern at all, you could cut out 2 long side pieces measuring 27.5 x 54.75 in and 2 short side pieces of 27.5 x 13.5 inch.
Likewise if you are planning to do piping for your edging you need to cut out 4 short side pieces and 4 long side pieces. (Click on over to LeanneBarlow; Elle Apparel to learn how to properly put on piping and ties on.)
The next piece of prep work is to make pattern pieces for your letters. The approximate length of the crib bumper is 161.5 inches. Count the number of letters in the name you're using. Divide 161.5 by the number of letters. This will give you the width of your letters. The length letters will be 12.75. (For Lion's name I ended up needing to make letters that were 12.75 x 8.75 in.).
Optional Step: On the two small side fabric pieces, measure out an inch from the edge of your fabric. Using your pattern pieces trace out the letters.
For the large side fabric pieces, repeat the copying steps above. And then sew your two pieces of fabric together. If you don't like seams to show, hide your seam under where two of your letters cover the height of your crib bumper.
If you somehow find a length wise pattern or chose no pattern at all, you could cut out 2 long side pieces measuring 27.5 x 54.75 in and 2 short side pieces of 27.5 x 13.5 inch.
Likewise if you are planning to do piping for your edging you need to cut out 4 short side pieces and 4 long side pieces. (Click on over to LeanneBarlow; Elle Apparel to learn how to properly put on piping and ties on.)
The next piece of prep work is to make pattern pieces for your letters. The approximate length of the crib bumper is 161.5 inches. Count the number of letters in the name you're using. Divide 161.5 by the number of letters. This will give you the width of your letters. The length letters will be 12.75. (For Lion's name I ended up needing to make letters that were 12.75 x 8.75 in.).
Optional Step: On the two small side fabric pieces, measure out an inch from the edge of your fabric. Using your pattern pieces trace out the letters.
For the large side fabric pieces, repeat the copying steps above. And then sew your two pieces of fabric together. If you don't like seams to show, hide your seam under where two of your letters cover the height of your crib bumper.
Step 3: Putting the Letters On
Iron on the Pellon to your letter fabric. On the paper side trace your pattern letters wrong side up. Cut out your letters
Iron on your letters to your main fabric. (If you traced your pattern pieces onto your main fabric, line up your letters into your outlines.)
Either sew down the letters by hand using a blanket stitch or a sew machine using a straight or zig zag stitch.
Iron on your letters to your main fabric. (If you traced your pattern pieces onto your main fabric, line up your letters into your outlines.)
Either sew down the letters by hand using a blanket stitch or a sew machine using a straight or zig zag stitch.
Step 4: Putting It Together
(Once again if you want to put piping around the outside refer to LeanneBarlow; Elle Apparel.)
Flip your fabric so that you have the wrong sides facing out. Sew down your edges first and then sew pieces together. Do not sew up the long side! Once all your sides are sewn together (and you have one long tube of fabric), flip it right side out.
Now that the top half is sewn together, its time to put the edging on. For my edging I used a doll needle and a 3/8 ribbon and then I used a stem stitch around the corners and then along the the top of my crib bumper
Below is a diagram for how the stem stitch is sewn.
For a more detailed tutorial visit Threads Magazine. It's about midway down the page. While you're there you can also see other ribbon embroidery techniques and see if you would like to edge your crib bumper with another.
For the ties cut your 5/8 ribbon into six 10-12 inch segments. Cut two in half. These now four pieces will be used to tie your ends together. Knot one of each of your six segments.
For your four shorter segments Sew them from the inside of your inside of your crib bumper and then sew one through each of the four corners. Knot the ends.
For your two corner segments (the uncut segments), use a doll needle to sew a segment from the outside corner to the inside corner of your crib bumper; leave about a 1/2 to 1 inch gap; sew the segment back from the inside to outside. Knot the end. Repeat on the other corner.
If you chose to make more ties down the side. Cut up your 5/8 ribbon into 6-10 inch segments depending on the width of your crib bars. And then sew them in the same way you sewed in the corner ties.
Finally it's time to stuff!
Below is a diagram for how the stem stitch is sewn.
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| Photo from Threads Magazine |
For the ties cut your 5/8 ribbon into six 10-12 inch segments. Cut two in half. These now four pieces will be used to tie your ends together. Knot one of each of your six segments.
For your four shorter segments Sew them from the inside of your inside of your crib bumper and then sew one through each of the four corners. Knot the ends.
For your two corner segments (the uncut segments), use a doll needle to sew a segment from the outside corner to the inside corner of your crib bumper; leave about a 1/2 to 1 inch gap; sew the segment back from the inside to outside. Knot the end. Repeat on the other corner.
If you chose to make more ties down the side. Cut up your 5/8 ribbon into 6-10 inch segments depending on the width of your crib bars. And then sew them in the same way you sewed in the corner ties.
Finally it's time to stuff!
Starting with your short side corner, stuff a small piece of foam into the hole. Using a slip stitch sew up the side. Repeat this step with the long corner side. And then finish up stuffing process placing the remaining pieces of foam into the middle sections and using a slip stitch to sew it up. Make sure as your sewing the bottom together that your letters line up appropriately.
Here It Is In Action:
Here's how the crib looks with the crib bumper on.
It's a little tight up top, but I do need to drop the mattress down a couple levels.
In the end though Lion loves his crib bumper!
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