Friday, May 28, 2010

Changing Pad Cover for Baby



Our Little One is going to rooming in with us in our bedroom - probably until he or she is weaned. Then the new baby will move in with either big sister or big brother. But for now, I wanted all of the Baby Bedding, etc. to match our bedroom. So, I made this new changing pad cover and lined the drawers of the changing table with the gray dot, also. 

This is our quilt on our bed (and our Boston Terrier too). The color is off in this picture- It's more of a light citrus green-not yellow. Anyway, this is what I'm matching my baby things with.

The following is more the story of how I made my changing pad- if you need really good precise directions- you're better off following the link I included to a different tutorial at the very bottom. So you've been warned. :)

A few pictures of the process
First measure your changing pad cover. Length, Width, and Height.
And then go crazy with pen & paper trying to do the math to make it work. For me this involved even more math than really necessary because I decided to make mine in strips.
My Changing Pad measured like this: 
32 inches long
24.5 inches wide
3 inches tall (at the corners)

Now I also measured the changing pad cover that I had been using- which was tough because it had elastic in it. I just pulled it tight and measured. 
My old cover measured:
41 inches long
29.5 inches wide
5.5 inches tall

So if your pad measures differently- you can add about 8-9 inches to the length, 5-6 in width, and about 2 inches in height. (The height measurement is what you use to cut the squares out of the corners- later).

These measurements would have worked really well- had I used one piece of fabric. I will start by saying that I should have allowed more width in mine. I didn't allow enough for the seam allowances of sewing all those strips together. I also could have shortened the length a tad, but once the elastic was in - that was fine.
So I'll give you my measurements...but know that if your changing pad is like mine...you'll need to add some to make up for the seam allowance.
I'll start from the edge and work in.

All of these were 41 inches long- these are the widths...
(2 strips) Stone Ta Dot- 1.5 inches (should have been more like 2 inches at least)
(2 strips) White Humming Bird- 3.5 inches (should have been more like 4 inches)
(2 strips) Ta Dot- 4.5 inches
(1 strips) White Chenille- 10.5 inches

The one step that is vital, that I did not photograph is where you cut a square out of each corner and then sew  those sides together to make a corner. I just laid my fabric on my changing pad and marked off where I wanted to make my cuts with a washable sewing marker. - But you should be able to use your measurement from the height of your changing table. My measurements seemed a little off... so I just tried it out on the pad and marked it. And that worked well. 

This is all my crazy math. 
Wish someone would have told me to pay attention in Math class 
because it would be useful in sewing. LOL.


Then just make a little casing for your elastic and run it through.
This is a pretty forgiving project- since there's no top stitching- you don't see wonky sewing lines and the elastic takes up any slack from mis-measurement. So as long as you get close- it's pretty good.

Prudent Baby has a great tutorial for how to make a changing pad cover that shows more steps and pictures than I do - so if you're lost click over there and check out her tutorial. 

1 comment:

Joy said...

Wow! Look at how productive you are in the final weeks. You're my inspiration! Thanks for posting this!

 
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