Paint and Sewing

The nursery transformation has started. Joe and Dylan started painting the main color of the nursery and I completed my first sewing project, the pleated dust ruffle for the crib!

Some of the sample colors
The previous wall color is/was a light, sky blue

Paint trial samples and cards

Dylan really wanted to help with the painting and to let him not feel left out (with all the attention about the baby room, he's been getting slightly jealous), felt it only fair to let him. And he was so proud that he got to help paint his brother's room.

For the crib skirt/dust ruffle I recalled trying to use a store-bought one when Dylan was a baby but the way the wood pieces that hold up the mattress are connected to the crib, it was impossible to get it to go down any side other than the showing long side. The remaining parts were just shoved under the mattress useless. So sewing my own and just making something to cover the sidse of the crib that will be showing seemed the most logical way to go about it.

I found this tutorial on how to just make individual pieces for each side, but decided I wanted to spice it up a bit and make a pleat too.

http://www.viewalongtheway.com/2012/04/silliest-little-adjustable-crib-skirt-tutorial-on-the-web/

So I followed this blog on how to do the pleat. Thank goodness for crafty people out there that have already done the trial-and-error so I can just follow along!

http://moldingamasterpiece.blogspot.com/2009/10/crib-skirt-tutorial-single-box-pleat.html

Here's the finished piece:

And here it is on the crib. I will secure it better and make it more even once the crib is emptied (currently it's the home for all the baby equipment while we paint) as I need to take off the mattress and velcro the top of the skirt onto the bed frame. I also like that with just one piece, when the mattress needs to be lowered when baby gets older, the skirt can be shortened. I know with the one size full dust ruffle, it can be too short when the mattress is at its high position or too long at its low position. 

I'm still debating as to whether or not I'll sew pieces to go on the shorter sides. Since the opposite long end of the crib will be against the wall, I know for sure I won't need a piece for there but there's a short section that shows under the short ends of the crib. I purchased enough fabric to make those but I might wait until everything else is done to make sure I have enough due to some miscalculations. I miscalculated how many crib rails there were (the crib was in storage so I looked up a picture) and we purchased enough fabric to create bumper rail covers for 12 rails per side...only there are 19. Whoops.

I will be getting new crib sheets to match the new colors

I have to thank my Mom for spending a long day at the fabric store with me picking out the fabric and determining how much we'd need of everything. I don't think I've done any sewing since Jr. High and even though I received a new sewing machine as a wedding gift, it sat in a closet for at least a year before I took it out of the box. I attempted to sew curtains for Dylan's nursery a few years ago but had some dummy moments and couldn't figure out how to get the sewing machine to work. I thought it was defective and by the time I decided that, it was too late to return it. I had my Mom take it home recently and she determined it was user error (I didn't really know how to set up a new one) and that it worked just fine!Guess that's what the user manual is for... So now that she got it working, I am able to take on these new nursery projects!