Mini-Crib Bumper

 A few months ago, I found a mini-crib on craigslist for Forrest. It took us awhile to obtain a mattress for it and then a few more months of it sitting unassembled because I had no bedding that size. I toyed with the idea of buying a mini-crib set but after looking at the prices and the sorry excuse for a selection in that size I decided to make my own. Enter a few more months of procrastination. Well, Forrest has now gotten so long that he has been consistantly smooshing himself into one corner of his mini co-sleeper. To top it off, he's almost sitting independently so it's time to move on from the bassinet. This week I finally bit the bullet, picked out a set of fabrics and made a fitted sheet and crib bumper for our mini crib.

For the fitted sheet I used this tutorial on Made, but of course I made it the size to fit a mini-crib mattress. Our mattress and crib are from Million Dollar Baby so I cut a piece of fabric 40 inches by 51 inches, with an 8inch square cut out off each corner. It fits perfectly! My serger did an amazing job finishing up the seams, I think I'm hooked! If only threading that thing wasn't such a pain, I'd use it ALL THE TIME.

The inside and outside of the bumper just took a yard of fabric each. The modern floral is Michael Miller Ellie and the yellow is Lizzy Dish by Lizzy House, both are fabrics that I love so much I've kept from cutting into them but together on this little bumper they just look SO adorable.

The bumper was made using two layers of high loft batting. I bought a crib-size package and then cut it into four 8-inch wide strips and then laid them out over the bumper pieces on the floor, when they weren't long enough I slightly over lapped the edges laying two pieces side by side, it worked out perfectly and was about 1/3 the cost of buying that special "crib bumper" batting.

Making a bumper is basically like binding a super long and narrow quilt. I bound it in that polyester bias tape instead of making my own because I wanted it to be strong enough to hold up to tying it to the crib and the vigorous gnawing that crib stuff goes through. About 3/4 through the project I realized I was one package short of red bias tape. Luckily, I had a coordinating color in my stash, which is why the top corner ties are blue.  I actually really like that the ties are not all one color, it makes it a bit more whimsical.

Big brother has already tested it out to make sure it's comfy. He approves.

I've contemplated making a crib skirt but honestly, once our littlest guy is standing, the mattress will be almost a floor level anyway and we won't be using a crib skirt then, so it would really only get at the maximum, 3 more months of use, so I'm skipping it. Now, to make a matching quilt or not....

Be blessed.