Every baby crib must have its own crib bumper

Did you ever feel that a crib sort of resembles a prison? With a crib bumper, you make what normally looks like a baby prison more stylish while still protecting your infant. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a crib set, why not make the crib bumper at home? It’s an easy do-it-yourself project, and here is how you do it.

The first thing you need to do is measure the length and width of the crib. To create a pattern for the crib bumpers, you will need to add 1/2″ length on each side. This means that in all, 1″ needs to be added to the length and the width. The printer paper is 8 1/2″ wide. So to create the crib bumper pattern, stick the papers end to end. Then trim them to the length of the crib side plus 1″. Carry out this procedure for the width side of the crib too.

Once this is done, return to the crib and hold the pattern paper to the crib. Make markings of where you would like to have the crib bumper pad ties. The pattern paper needs to be held up to the crib while making these markings, so that you know that the ties will line up with the crib bars. Lay the fabric you have chosen on a flat surface. Fold this fabric in half, so that the front is facing inwards, towards itself. Choose cotton batting for the bumpers, depending on the thickness that you want the bumpers to have. Lay a sheet of cotton batting over the fabric. Pin the crib bumper pattern over the fabric and the batting. Using the pattern as your guide, cut the fabric and batting. You will have to cut two sets for the ends of the crib, and two sets for the sides. Once this is done, pin these back together.

Cut the ribbon into 8-10″ lengths. Cut 12 pairs of lengths in ribbon. The ribbons that have been cut have to be laid inside, in between the fabric pieces. Once the ribbon pieces are laid in place, pin them up to be sewed. One set should be pinned to the top and one to the bottom, where you have marked off on the pattern for the ties to be stitched. 1″ of ribbon should come out through the top and the bottom of the fabric, but the rest of it should be tucked neatly inside the fabric. To ensure that the ends of the ribbons don’t get sewn accidentally, you can always pin them up.

Stitch each piece around the entire outside of each pattern piece of fabric, leaving about 1-2″ open for turning the fabric inside out. You need to stitch 1/2″ in from the edge, to go along with the pattern that you have created. This is why you had added 1″ extra to each pattern piece. Now, turn the pieces inside out and pin the openings shut. Once this is done, you can hand stitch the openings.

Finally, pin the crib bumpers together and hand stitch them with care. When you place the bumper pads into the crib, the hand stitched edges should be facing inwards. This way, no one can see where you have stitched the bumper pads. You have just created your very own baby crib bumper.