Crib Sheets

Sorry! I got a little delayed by a sick baby who was kind enough to pass her cold on to me. Why is it that the mama always gets sicker than anyone else? Anyway, back to the office clean out.

Up until about 4 weeks ago Vivian has been sleeping in her co-sleeper (pictured here). Of course as she got bigger and could sit up and then stand up we had to continually lower the bottom until the co-sleeper was more like a play yard. No problem really, Vivian was perfectly happy to sleep in there. At one point though, we had to move the bed into her own room because she kept bonking her head on the wall through the soft sides when she was learning to stand. In her room we had the space to keep the bed away from the walls. Once she was in her own room we didn't see the point in not getting her a real bed. It took us a while to agree on a bed but once we had the opportunity to lend the the co-sleeper to a friend having a baby a fire was finally lit under us to make a decision.

One of my first projects for the new crib was to make some snazzy crib sheets. Prudent Baby had a really easy looking tutorial (a great blog for sewing projects by the way). I found some cute fabrics, got them all washed up and then got derailed by the dirty office. I couldn't measure the fabric out when it was all wrinkled up and I didn't have room to pull out the ironing board. So first I cleared a big space to get out the ironing board and got the fabric squared up, measured and cut. That probably took longer than actually making the sheets by the way. Next I cut 8 inch squares from the corners. This is how you make the pockets in a fitted sheet. Seems so hard when you look at a sheet but that is all it takes. Once the squares have been removed I stitched up the corners, right sides together. Next I serged around the entire edge of the sheet to seal up the raw edges. Without a serger you would fold over the edge and straight stitch instead. Next I cut 10 inch pieces of elastic, pinned them into the new corners, stretched as far as the elastic would go and then stitched it in place. Repeat for all corners and the sheet was done.

I stuck with my nursery color scheme by choosing bold fabrics in pinks, greens and browns. I made 2 flannel sheets for winter and 2 cotton sheets for the rest of the year.

I especially love the stripes. I can't wait for warmer weather to use that one. The other flannel is the light pink. I got a little extra stripy fabric to make a crib skirt if time permits.

Vivi seems to like her new sheets. They are not only cute but much much cheaper than designer sheet. I think interesting sheets are an easy way to make a nursery pop!