Baby crib bumpers

I am not going to write out all the directions on here as I copied them 100% from this website I founds... i'll post it below so anyone who is interested can do the same.  The instructions were very clear and I was able to accomplish my goal (my first sewing goal since about 13 years ago in highschool) of making my baby girls crib bumpers.  The only thing I did differently than this blog is I made my own crib ties, I didn't just use ribbon... I'll be honest, making your own takes probably 5 times as long as just cutting and sewing in ribbon, but I personally like the look of it a lot better, so I'll show you how I did that...
Here is the link to make crib bumpers
And here are my tid bits...
1) pick out the type and thickenss of batting you want to use, I just went to the fabric store and looked at the batting on those big rollers and used the measurements of my crib to determine how much to buy.  Fabric wise, I bought 2 1/2 yards just so I would have enough for seams and all that jazz.
2) Make your pattern (how ever small or tall your bumpers are is up to you), I used wax paper and then cut off about an 1-1 1/2 inches off the width and then rolled it out one inch longer than the length of the side of my crib and cut.  I used the same piece of wax paper for all four sides, I just measured and cut the long sides first and then cut the wax paper to fit the short sides of the crib and then cut those... Walla!... I had all my pieces (the rest you can read about on the link I posted).

Now for the ties...
1) I suggest getting a partner in crime for this, it was much easier having help with cutting and measuring, and it went a lot faster.
2) Determine the width and length you want your ties, I didn't care if they could tie a bow, I wanted more the knot look so we cut mine 11 inches long and about an 1 1/2 inches wide... different sizes will have different looks.
3) We made this SUPER easy.... we cut one long strip the width and length we wanted and then we folded over the fabric, pinned that one to the next segment and cut another one and just kept using the last one we had cut as our pattern... the length of our fabric was such that we could just cute one long strip the width I wanted and then we divided it by 4 (which was 11 inches) and after we cut all the strips we needed we cut them into 4ths and walla (I had 8 long strips total which each cut evenly into 4 11 in pieces) (in the end you need 24 ties).
4) the next part took the longest, once you have all your 11 in x 1 1/2 in strips (or what ever length you choose)... you fold it in half, right side of the fabric facing in and you sew around two of the open ends leaving one of the small ends open (I did a zig zag and a straight stitch, doubled up, to ensure no fraying would occur), and then you start to turn it inside out, first start with your fingers, then you can use the end of a wooden spoon to push the excess fabric through (it really does take a while.), and then you can tuck in the raw edges of the open end and sew the end shut, iron the pieces flat, and there you have it... ties. (follow the link to show you how to sew them into the bumpers.)

Finished product...

clip board

My one year old is getting quite a clip collection and we needed somewhere to put them all where we could see them. I can't claim this idea as my own, I saw it somewhere, I just copied it, but it's really easy and turned out pretty cute!


All we did was wrap some fabric around a canvas and secure it with staples. Then stapled some ribbon on and hung it up on her wall. Easy Peasy.

painting fabric

I've had these chairs for a while now and just was never happy with them. I covered them in a solid fabric that ended looking the same color as the paint on our walls, blah. It looked totally different at the fabric store. So I painted numbers on them! a cute friend suggested this and I've been seeing it a lot in Pottery Barn and stores like that.

Fabric paint is really easy and cheep, and I just made the stencils by printing numbers on card stock and cutting them out with a razor blade.

(and check out the beginning of our Halloween decor, the bats hanging from the chandler)