Chelsea, from One Hot Crafty Mama, is here today to share a SUPER crib bumper tutorial with you all.  This was a project I kept saying, “I should do that!” and never got around to it.  I ended up buying the set we used with Little Monkey.  Some times, time is worth more than money.  Chelsea makes it look super easy and maybe, just maybe, I’ll have to give it a go with this little one.  Take it away, Chelsea!

I am beyond super excited how this turned out!!! I found this fabric on clearance at Joann’s and fell in love with it, so I bought the rest of the bolt it ended up being about 2 1/2 yds, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it but I knew that I would think of something, this is what I thought of!!

Our first child was a daughter and EVERYTHING that she had when she was a baby was either pink or purple. It was all gifts, so I’m VERY VERY grateful for it don’t get me wrong. But when we found out that this baby is a boy, I was kind of in a spot of now I need everything for a boy and nothing we have is neutral. I have been looking at bedding for the crib online and have been shocked how much stuff is. That is when I decided that I can make a cover for the bumper that we already have, using the pink bumper as my guide I made what I think is a pretty cool cover.
I was able to cut on the fold and get twice as much length out of the fabric then before and it was the perfect width.

I then cut 2 1/2″ strips of fabric to make ties with.

Everything was made into tubes, the actually cover was easy to flip with the right side out. The ties were a little harder, but I have found that using a pencil helps it out a lot.

Again using the bumper as a model I measure the distance between ties and sewed them the same distance apart on the cover.

On one end I added Velcro so I could easily remove it if I need to.

We have some friends that have a little boy two months older than our Little Monkey.  Back when the boys were just little (like in infant carriers kind of little), they were given a BundleMe Car Seat Cover.  I liked it A LOT!  It was warm, attached to the seat (who doesn’t love picking wet, dirty blankets up off the ground?), and you can still put the seat belt straps up against the child like they are supposed to be fastened.

And then I started doing some looking for them.  I about died when I saw they were around $50!  For the light, cheap versions.  The heavier version I wanted was closer to $90!  Uhm,  JJ Cole, I’m not made of money!  So, I set out to make my own.  Wal-Mart was having their polar fleece on sale and so I decided to use that for our knock-off.  I spent less than $10 on my knock off and bought other stuff {you know, like diapers and wipes} with the $80 I saved on the JJ Cole version.

Here’s the How:

(Because this project was pre-blog, I don’t have process pictures.  It’s fairly self-explanatory though.  If you have questions, please email me or leave a comment {and make sure your email address is enabled so I can answer you back!}.  I will get back to you as soon as I can.)

Supplies:
– 4 yards of polar fleece.  I did two yards of brown and a yard and two yards of green to match our car seat.  If you want a lighter, single-layer cover, you’ll only need two yards.
–  Velcro.  I prefer the non-sticky back for sewing.
–  Scissors
–  Coordinating thread.
–  Zipper.  You’ll need either two shorter ones or one great big long one.  I couldn’t find one long enough to go all the way around the bottom of the cover, so I ended up with two shorter ones, one on each side of the cover.

Instructions:
1.  Lay your fleece out in the car seat so you’ll kind of have an idea of how it will fit.  The top of the fleece will sit at the top of the car seat.  It should lay flat in the car seat and then fold up over the bottom to make a blanket.

2.  Lay your fleece out, right sides together.  Pin and sew the fleece together.  Leave a hole that you can turn the fabric through.  I left one whole side open to flip my cover through.  You could leave a smaller opening if you want a little more finished look to your cover.  If you opt for a lighter, single layer version, skip this step.

3.  Turn the fabric so your seams are on the inside.  Lay the cover out in the car seat again and mark the locations of the buckles.  Make sure you get all the holes for the shoulder straps and the strap that goes between the legs.

4.  Cut a small slit just wide enough to get the bottom buckle (the one that goes through your little one’s legs) through the fabric. Stitch a small rectangle around the slit to help hold the fabric in place.  Because fleece doesn’t fray, you don’t have to hem it.

5. For the shoulder straps, I cut a vertical split that runs from the top slit to the bottom slit.  Sew a length of velcro along the slit.  Your shoulder straps will slip through the velcro and you won’t have to sew individual slits for each position.

6.  Figure out where your cover will fold back up and cover your little one’s legs/torso.  Ours is actually long enough to hang on the canopy of the car seat, which we did with Little Monkey.  (With this new kidlet, it will be more like a blanket and we’ll use the car seat cover as the over-the-top cover.)  Pin your zippers in place and sew them down.  I didn’t tuck them in between the seams.  (If you want to do that, you’ll need to place and sew your zippers in before you sew the two pieces together.)

You’ll end up with this:

7.  Insert into car seat.  Compare the $90 JJ Cole version to your $10 version and admit it may not be as pretty, but you have an extra $80 in your wallet…

So, you’ve probably heard that the GFC Followers is going away in March for non-Blogger blogs.  And, quite possibly, it will go away for everyone in time.  Google is trying to consolidate their services (which will be nice to not have 30 different accounts anymore…) and promote Google+.  However, that means everything associated with GFC will disappear.  Frustrating, I know.  All those blogs that have thousands of followers…  yep, all non-Blogger blogs will lose all those followers.

I do use Blogger so there won’t be a ton of change for While He Was Napping come March.  BUT, I know a lot of my fave blogs are not Blogger-hosted.  Do you follow any non-Blogger blogs (I’m sure every one of us does)?  But, I’m working on transferring all my GFC content to my Google Reader so I don’t lose or miss out on anything.  So, how do you make sure that you don’t lose all those blogs you’ve worked so hard to find in your reading list?

My preferred method is with an RSS Feed.  I use Google Reader because I have the reader app on my phone.  And, right now, it’s fairly easy to go back and forth between GFC and Reader to transfer my subscriptions.  It’s great and I love that it’s easily accessible on my phone, tablet and on the web.  When I’m bored (like waiting for the doctor – which I do A LOT of these days) I can just pull up my reader and catch up on all my favorite blogs.  It’s great because it’s got everything all in one spot.  {I just wish there was a “Pin This” option in the reader.}  Anyway, there are several options as far as RSS readers go: Yahoo!, Google, Bloglines, Windows Live, and more.  To sign up and follow While He Was Napping in an RSS Feed, click HERE.  You’ll be taken to feedburner, where you can choose which reader you’d like your content sent to.  Just keep adding more blogs to the same reader and, in no time, you’ll be all set up.

I also have added the option for you to follow with Bloglovin’, Networked Blogs and Linky Followers.  There are follow widgets in the left side bar to make it easy.  Just click on the “Follow” button.  Bloglovin’ also has apps in the App Store and Android Market.  The Android app is free.  Networked Blogs links to Facebook.  And Linky Followers is a new option, run by Brent Riggs (you may know him as the guy that runs Linky Tools, a popular link party service).  It’s a free service as well.  It’ll keep all your blogs in one place.  I’ve only started playing with it, so I don’t know a whole lot about it yet, but it seems pretty easy to use.

Or find me on Etsy:
 

I know that’s a lot of info I just threw at you.  If you have questions, let me know.  I’ll do my best to answer them.  Good luck getting everything transferred.

Is it party time already?!  Wow.  It feels like it should only be Tuesday or Wednesday.  Well, welcome party people.  Don’t forget about the Baby Linky too.  Come party there too!

A couple features from last week: