Green Elephant Nursery

Hey guys!  I decided to show you some of my in-progress nursery pictures.  It's the other craft I wanted to show a couple of days ago, but decided that Blogger's format was too frustrating to mess with.  Lets hope today goes a little better.

This is a throw pillow I made out of the valance that came with the set.  I don't like window valances so I wanted to do something else with it.  Now, this pillow won't stay in the crib because that is a hazard for my little bundle.  We are having an old rocker style chair refinished and this pillow will go on it when we get it back. I don't have any progress shots, but basically I ripped all the seams out of the valance giving me the brown panel with the elephants, the green corduroy I used for the trim, and a solid brown panel with no design.  Then I cut the panel with the elephants I wanted.  There was a whole parade of elephants so I had to cut between them to get the two I wanted.  Then I stitched a strip of the green to the top and to the bottom.  The back of the pillow is just the solid brown panel cut to fit.  I ironed some fusible batting to the front and back to keep the pillow from being lumpy, then I sewed them together, turned right side out and stuffed.  I still have enough materials left over for a second pillow if I want.  I am going to wait until I have the chair back so I can see how the one looks first.

Next I have the bumper.  This was originally a four sided bumper.  My crib converts to a toddler bed by removing the front side of the crib so I wanted the bumper to also have a removable front.  Now, I have read online that using a bumper is not recommended.  After reading all the reasons why I decided that I would find a bumper that didn't have the same issues they warn you against.  One issue is if the bumper is too soft the baby may pull it on top of themselves and suffocate.  You can't see in the photo, but my bumper is made out of a rigid foam so even if he manages to pull it down it won't cover his face.  Another issue is the restriction of air flow inside the crib causing carbon dioxide buildup.  By removing the front (which I wanted to do anyway) I am allowing the air to flow freely.  Let's look at a closer picture.

I used some of the scraps from the valance to mimic the binding on the bumper. Then I sewed my new binding to the end to cover my exposed edge.  I also had to make a couple of extra straps for the other end of the bumper and sew those into place.  I apologize, but I don't have a picture of the other end.  Since that end was already finished I didn't do anything else with it.  It doesn't have the green binding like the end I finished, but the bumper was too thick for my machine so I couldn't add it.  If you look closely in the top picture you can see that one side has the green binding and one side doesn't.  I am okay with leaving it like that.

When I get the whole nursery finished then I will post a picture.  Right now I am working on painting an elephant/jungle theme on the walls and my husband is working on getting a shelf up for our bed time reading.

Whew!  Two posts in one week, I am exhausted.  I think I have this new format figured out so this post wasn't too painful.  Hopefully I will have more to follow soon.

Crappy In-Laws, Rainy Weather, and Crafts

Hello everyone! I am having a really crappy day and I thought blogging about a couple of crafts I have done might make me feel better. First off I will start with an apron I made out of two 20" cloth napkins. I first saw this site a while ago and wanted to make an apron like she did. https://www.craftstylish.com/item/3661/make-one-adorable-apron-from-two-colorful-napkins

Unfortunately I couldn't find napkins as cute as she did.

 This is what I found instead. Two 20" green stripe napkins and a matching ribbon I liked. First press your napkins so they aren't too wrinkled.

  

For the top of the apron press two pleats running vertically down the napkin. Make sure they are even on both sides and measure against your chest to make sure the width of the top of the apron is comfortable. You don't want the bottom of the apron to be pleated so make sure the pleats gradually widen out.
 Next sew your pleats into place. It is hard to tell in the picture but I stitched just a little inside the edge of the pleat all the way to the bottom. I stopped about 2" from the bottom of the napkin.

 Now you want to measure where you want the strings to tie and the pockets to start. I made my apron as long as it would go and stitched the second apron to the very edge of the bottom of the first.  I stitched as close to the edge on the backside since that part will be exposed. The front seam will be covered with the ribbon.  This is a picture of the front.

 

Measure how long you want your apron strings to be and cut your ribbon to that length. Then pin the ribbon into place and stitch along the top and bottom of the ribbon.
 When your ribbon is in place fold the bottom half of the apron up to form the pockets. Line up the edges so they are even and sew along the two open ends.






I made two evenly sized pockets by sewing one seam straight down the middle. You could add more pockets if you wanted.

Lastly, measure how long you want your top strap to be and cut your ribbon to length. I tucked the ends of the ribbon into the pleats and sewed one seam straight across the whole front.  Your apron is now complete.





Allow me to finish by saying I hate the new format for posting photos to our blog.  This short post was a huge headache to get organized.  I hope you enjoyed this.  My apron is lovely and I may give it as a gift.  I already own about 6 aprons so I really don't need another.  I was going to post another craft I did, but I think I will stop here for now.  Hope your day is going better than mine.