Redoing the bassinet - Adding the skirt

Okay, this is the part where you might want to do something totally different than what I did.  I just added a simple skirts but there are all sorts of ways that you could change it up to be more individualized.  I don't really like frilly things like ruffles, so I did pleats, but you could do ruffles.  You could also add all sorts of helpful pockets to keep things like pacifiers, and lovies close by.  I didn't think that far ahead, so mine isn't anything special, maybe I'll add something later in the way of convenient storage.

Supplies:

1 yd 44" cotton fabric

Cotton fabric left over from making the canopy

Matching tread

Velcro

Alright, because this was so simple to make I didn't take many pictures, but I think you can get the idea here.  I started out by cutting my 1 yd of cotton fabric into 3 strips of 10."  Then removed the selveges and stitched the short sides together to make one really long piece of fabric that was 10" in width that could wrap around the bassinet.  Then I put a 1/2" hem along one of the long edges and finished the short edges with a 1/2" hem as well.  My piece of fabric ended up being 124" and when I wrapped it around the bassinet I found that I had an extra 27" of material.  So, to reduce the size of the fabric I put in 9 3" box pleats on the unfinished edge, centering one of the pleats in the middle and placing them evenly around the skirt.  

To finish the raw edge I sewed together 3 2" WOF strips of my cotton fabric left over from the canopy together lengthwise, then folded and pressed in half wrong sides together making a sort of bias tape.  Then I attached this with about a 1/2" seam to the back of the skirt leaving about 1" hanging off the edge.  After attaching to the back side I folded the piece hanging over onto the front of the fabric and stitched it on.  Then I folded the whole thing over and stitched it to the right side.  This is what I ended up with.

In this picture it's actually being held on with pins.  Later this evening I will add velcro on the back side and to to bassinet cover to hold it up.  There really are a lot of options with this too, you could tie it on, add elastic, or you could even permanently sew it on!  Keep in mind that if you permanently sew it on you'll have to leave a space to access the zippers on the end.  My bassinet is getting cuter everyday!

Redoing the bassinet - Adding the canopy

Alright, so far my project is just a boring brown, but maybe with this next step we can add a little color, and a little more functionality.  It's time to start thinking about adding the canopy, or is it a hood?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, in the original cover I have the canopy is permanently attached.  I suppose this is fine, and I could have done that with mine, but I have three thoughts.

First, is the canopy really going to get all that dirty?  I kind of doubt it, I mean I may want to wash it now and then but I can't see it getting too much on it, but the part that the baby sleeps in will, and if I decide that I want 2 bassinet covers I could make the second one cheaper by just making the base part that the baby sleeps in, and not making 2 hoods.  Second, I've read all sorts of peoples complaints that the canopy gets in the way and that they don't use it.  I'm not sure if I'll feel this way, but if I do it's not a problem to take it off.  Third, I want my bassinet to be a little on the boyish side, because I'm having another boy, but what it the ultrasound is wrong, or what if I have another baby in the future that ends up being a girl?  Well, with this plan it really would be no big deal to just make another canopy.

Okay, so first, supplies.

I started with 2/3 yd of a 44" cotton fabric (and found that I only really needed about 1/2yd, but we'll use more later!)
Coordinating thread
Velcro
The plastic hoops harvested from the original cover

Now to sew it, and the best part about this is compared to the last part I bet it's going to be easy!

First, cut 2 rectangles 8x36" and 2 4" squares of your cotton fabric.  On the first rectange take one long edge and put a 1/2" hem on it to finish the edge nicely.

Now to figure out a channel for the hoop on the other one.  On the other rectangle of fabric fold and press the edge over 1 inch.  Then open this press job and fold the raw edge to the point or your iron crease.  Press this line in.  Refold up to the original crease.  Now, if you look at this there should be a 1/2" channel that your plastic hoop will fit perfectly in, the only thing is we need to figure out how to access it when all is said and done.  Now, what I here was a little creative, and not the easiest way to do it, but I'll tell you anyway.  I basically then unfolded my creases, and marked off about 2.75" from the end where a slit could go that I could use, then I sewed a box around it and cut the slits on each side the folded my creases back to the original position and stitched.  In hind sight, a button hole would have been a better choice because now I have to make some little straps to velcro over the holes to hide them!

Now the tricky part.  Take the 3 rectangles and sew the long raw edges together with a 1/2" seam.  Press the seam open.  Now fold your fabric over right sides together 1/2" from the seam towards the side with the holes for the hoop, press this in.  Now flip the fabric over and fold it back until the raw seam on the back is just covered.  This will do two things, it will cover the ugly seam and create a channel to put in the other plastic hoop.  Before sewing it should look like this:

And here's where our channel is going to be:

To access the channel this time we are going to be smart and add in button holes 2.75 " from each end, making sure to only go through one layer of fabric.  Then we are going to stitch the sides of the channel by sewing on the crease that covers the raw seam and the other side of the channel just over 1/2" from this, near the seam from putting together the long pieces.  It should now look like this with the button holes on the reverse side:

Now finish the raw edges with 1/2" hems.

To make the little straps to cover the first set of holes I made I simply took one of the 4" squares and folded right sides together, then stitched a 1/2" seam.  Then turn right side out, finish one of the rough edges by folding it over twice and stitching.  Make two of these and then attach the unfinished side of the cover strap to the right side of the cover just past the channel for the rod (see the picture below!)  Then add some velcro to both the cover strap and the wrong side of the canopy to close it.

Now there is one problem.  When you try to fit the hood to the bassinet you will discover that the width of the canopy is quite a bit more than the curve on the bassinet that we are trying to fit it to.  My canopy fabric is currently about 34", but as you can see in the picture the length of my curve is only about 26", so things aren't going to fit so well.  We can fix this though, by adding 5 1.5" pleats to the back of the canopy edge.  I placed mine so that they were evenly distributed on the canopy.  After that it fits great!



Now we just need to add a way to attach it to the bassinet cover.  Originally I planned on using snaps, but after more thought I decided that if one came off it could be a potential choking hazard, so that probably wasn't the best idea.  I decided to go with more velcro.  All you have to do is pin on the hood and figure out where you want to attach velcro!  After that you're done and have something that looks like this:

Nope, the kid in the background won't be sleeping in it, but he's sure curious about what baby brother is going to do with it!

Redoing a bassinet - Day 2 - Adding the outer cover

Okay, so let me start this off by saying I'm not much of a sewer, I'm more into quilting, so sometimes when I start trying to sew something without a pattern I do a lot of trial and error.  For this portion of the project if I were to do it again I would think about the process a bit more and I'm sure I can come up with an easier way, but well, this is what I made work this time.  If you try making this and come up with a better method please comment or send me an email with how you did it!

So, first I'm going to add the small end panels to where the bassinet attaches to the frame on both sides.  Now, I want to be able to easily remove the cover to throw it in the washing machine, so I'm going to put in 2 15" separating zippers.  Now, the first thing I need to know is how long to make these curved panels, to figure out this measurement I put my lining in the bassinet and measured from the bottom of the canvas portion of the lining to where I wanted the fabric to end at the bottom, making sure to factor in enough fabric for a hem.  I used a length of 12."  Now I took the curved pattern piece that I made when making the lining and cut 4 pieces of canvas that had 12" added to the bottom edge.  Like this.  Now, I need to made sure that 2 are the same, and two are mirror images, so cutting folded fabric worked great!  Here's what it looked like to do:

Now to add the zipper.  I know that my long edge is longer than the zipper, so I'm going to have to finish that edge somehow so it looks finished at the bottom.  To do that I double folded over the long straight edge and added a straight stitch, kind of like a hem, to each of the four pieces.  Then I added the separating zipper to this edge, making sure to put the panels together when adding the second half of the zipper to make sure that things lined up.  Here's what I ended up with:

Of course, I actually had two of these panels, one for each end.  Now, I need to account for two more things.  First, I have an inside panel and an outside panel, but I don't have enough room to wrap around the bassinet frame, I'm about 1/2" short, so I cut a couple 1 1/2" strip of canvas fabric and stitched it on the outside edge of the panels (but not the bottom.)  Like this:

Next time, I think I'll be smarter and just make the outer edge bigger when I cut it, but this straight piece being on really makes for a nice fit around the frame, so I'm actually quite happy.

Now, the next thing I need to account for is that on one side I'm going to be adding a removable canopy.   Do do this I want to add a separate cotton flap, and I do that by cutting a 3" strip of fabric and folding it in half lengthwise and iron it.  The on the one of the panels sandwich the strip in between the extra 1 1/2" piece and the original panel.  This is going to give me a place to add velcro at a later date if I find time to make the canopy.  Here's sort of what this looks like:

Now all I have to do is line up the front and back panels and stitch them together, (but only down to where the minky starts on the inner lining) and this is when things started to really head south on this phase of the project.  I put this on and low and behold it's too tight to fit around the frame and zip!  Ahhh!!!  I'm about 4" short!  Talk about poor planning.

I can fix this though.  I could remove the entire zipper and add an additional strip to where the zipper attaches to each side, but that would be a lot of work.  So, instead I just cut the zippers off and add a 3.75" strip in on each side of the zipper.  Then I can sew the zipper back in by the fabric that I removed.  But first I have to remove the stitches from stitching the front and back together. When all is said and done the panels end up looking like this:  Note this is the piece with the added section for the canopy.

Now I can stitch the outside and inside panels together again, again only to the point where the minky starts.  At this point I need to make sure it fits which it does, then I have to add an over stitch to all the seams I put in.  Finally, I need to figure out how to finish off the rough edge on the upper edge.  On one side I did it by using a bias tape from a cotton fabric, on the other I just double folded it over.  I'm not 100% happy with either method since the canvas is so heavy, but it will do the trick.  Here's what both sides look like currently in the bassinet:

Now, we're back to another problem with the poor planning.  Since I had to add all these extra almost 4" strips of fabric I'm short of the canvas material to finish the side panels on the bassinet.  So, it's back to the fabric store for me before I can finish!  I'm short by about 12" but I know I can get more.

After the trip to the fabric store there's really not much left to do.  Just cut 2 pieces that are 12"x28" rectangles, pin and sew them between the two side panels and the top of the interior minky.  Then fit it, do the overcast stitch and add a hem at the bottom.  When all is said and done here's what it looks like in the bassinet:

I know, it looks a little boring at this point.  It's just brown.  But my whole idea here is that by making this one piece a neutral color I can add some more interesting fabric in the canopy, and the bassinet skirt, as well as in the new skirt that I'll make for the table.  Trust me, this will be looking a little more interesting in the near future!

Redoing a bassinet - Afternoon #1

Okay, so I know this is not a quilting project, but it's something I really searched for directions for on other blogs and couldn't really find, and I thought it might be useful for someone else if I took notes on this project and put it out there on the web.

My latest project is to redo a little older Eddie Bauer Rocking Musical Bassinet.  Basically, I bought one used on craigslist and the fabric was all stained and nasty and it didn't wash out so I resigned myself to needing to replace it.  This afternoon I finished the first half of the project and am going to blog on what I have done so far.  Before I get started I guess I should warn you I removed a tag that said this:

So sew at your own risk.

Okay, so this is what I started with:

Cute, but this is a stock photo and the one I have is nasty.  I probably could save the outside skirt and the bottom fabric, but it actually smells bad after a couple washes so I'm just going to do something all new.  To start with I'm going to do the inside liner part where the baby is actually going to lay.  My first step is take the top part of the fabric off, which in this model requires a screw driver.  Huh?  Gee, that makes it really easy to wash and keep clean.  I might have to figure something out to deal with that fact.  So I'm going to cut it off since I'm trashing it anyway.  To cut it off I just cut a slit in the outer layer of fabric of the skirt on both ends right where the bolt feeds through to the frame and all the way to the bottom.  I didn't get a good photo but this really isn't a critical step!  Then I examined the thing and tried to decide how I was going to go about things.  I decided I was going to cheapen things up by sewing just one cover to start, but making the canopy and decorative skirt removable so if I wanted to sew a second piece for the baby to be in I could for a little cheaper.  I also didn't want to have to unbolt it to take it off to wash, but the design currently is that way to keep it secure.  Instead, I'm going to put in 2 separating zippers one on each end which I think should be secure.  Okay, so here's a list of everything I need for this part of the project:

1 yd of a cheap 44" fabric that no one will see - I used muslin

Soft fabric for inside the box - I went with 1 yd of a 60" minky

Fabric for outside of the box and the upper ends inside the box - I found a 60" washable suiting canvas in my price range and needed 1 1/4yds (scratch that, for the next part I ran short of fabric, so start with 1 3/4 yds)

1/4 yd of coordinating fabric to make bias tape or bias tape.

2 15" separating zippers

Lots of 5/8" Velcro

Snaps (only if you want to add a removable canopy)

Alright, let's get started!

Step 1:

Measure the bottom board of the bassinet that the mattress sits on, cut a rectangle of fabric to fit, adding a total of 1" to each side for a seam allowance.  Cut a piece of your muslin to fit.  In the case of my bassinet I cut a 17"x29" rectangle.

Step 2:

Measure the inside depth of the bassinet, again, adding one inch for a seam allowance.  My depth was 10, 11" when adding my 1 inch.  Cut a rectangle of minky for each side of the piece you cut in step 1.  For mine I cut 2 rectangles that were 17"x11" and 2 rectangles that were 29"x11."

Step 3: Pin and sew (with a 1/2" seam) the rectangles from step 2 onto the bottom rectangle that was cut in step 1.  If using a fabric with nap be careful with how you line things up.  Now, you should have a piece that looks like this:

That was easy.  Now it gets a little trickier.  On narrow sides the bassinet is curved and we need to figure out the shape to cut.  What I did was cut on my nasty one that's destined for the garbage.  Basically, I lined up the my skinny side with the bottom of the old one and marked off the height that it came to on the original.  Like this:

Then I took the original and cut out the curved piece on the seams and 1/2" below the line I drew on the original.  I did the cutting from the side that doesn't have the canopy on the original.  Basically, I then used the piece I cut to make a pattern piece.  I laid the piece out on the canvas I was intending the use and marked 1/2" for the seam allowance all the way around the piece.  Then I cut this piece out.  

Anyone else see a problem here?  I actually need this piece to be 17" so it matches up with the width of the minky, right now it's 18" and it's looking stretched out like it's no longer symmetrical.  My solution for this was to fold it in half and cut down the fold line.  Then pick the side that looked like it would fit best around the top hole and trim away some excess so the half piece measures 8.5."  I ended up with a new pattern piece that looks like this:

Now all I have to do is place it on a fold line of my canvas fabric and cut 2 of these out.  One for each end!  Then pin and sew them on until I end up having a piece like this:

Of course, both of the short ends should have this piece added on!  From there it's just sewing up the minky sides together to make a box.  Finally, I feel like I've made some progress!  I can't resist, I'm going to go fit it in the bassinet before I get any further!

Looks like it fits pretty well, now it's time to add a few more things.  First off the bottom board of the bassinet has 4 pieces of Velcro two at the top and two at the bottom so the bottom fabric sticks to it.  I'm not really sure it's unnecessary, since the mattress sits on top holding it down, but I'll add some to mine.  Additionally, on the bottom of the board there are 10 more pieces of Velcro that the fabric has straps of Velcro added on the reach over the edge and hook underneath.  These seam a little more important to keep things from shifting around, so I'll add the straps on.  For the straps I'm going to need 10 6" pieces of Velcro (the soft side) so I cut those and line them up with where the Velcro is on the board.  Then I sew them on in the seam allowance, like this:

After all 10 are attached I also sew on the four little strips that match up to the bottom of the board.   

At this point I have to admit my back is starting to get a bit achy, and I need a break, but before I take one I go over all the seams with an overcast stitch.  Of course I could have done this earlier, but I usually make more mistakes, and it's easier to rip out a straight stitch.  Guess I was lucky today though!  After the overcasting I remember there's one more thing that has to be done to the inner liner.  On the original there are these little plastic inserts that give the ends some support.  They basically go in a pocket from the back side of the lining so I need to add this pocket.  Okay, so the plastic measures 14"x3" so I'm going to make pockets that measure just over 3 inches to thread them into.  So, I cut 2 18"x4" pieces of my cheap muslin (no one is going to see this part!)  Then I'm in the mood to play with my new narrow hem foot so I do a narrow hem along one long side of each of these pieces, and I also do a 1/2" hem to each of the short sides ending up with pieces that look like this:

Now to attach them to the ends.  The goal is to have the long finished edge line up with the bottom edge of the minky.  We are going to sew these on to the back of the minky, so it's time to load a bobbin with some coordinating thread.  Okay, now, I line it up, flip it up and sew the unfinished edge about 3 inches up from the seam between the minky and the bottom panel, maybe a picture will help:

Then flip the pocket back down to the seam line and sew the other long side (with the hem) and one of the short sides.)  Of course do this with both of the end pieces of minky.  When you are done just feed in the plastic inserts, but DO NOT stitch them in as you will want to remove them to wash it.  If desired you could add some more Velcro to close this pocket, in the original that's what was done, but I'm going to skip that step, at least for now!

Okay, time to go fit the lining into the bassinet and see how things are looking:

Now obviously, this is just the lining and the blue painters tape is only there to hold the edges up as I check out the fit, but I really think this is going to be a comfy place to lay!  However, at this point I need to take a break and write this all up so I remember how to do it again.

Baby Safari Animals

So Mr. KatieKwilts is in grad school and one day he asked me to take our 2 year old downstairs while he took an online quiz for a few hours.  I got down there and DS just wanted to play trains and wanted nothing to do with me so I wondered back into my fabric stash to see what kind of trouble I might be able to get into.  I had 2 yards of this cute baby blue safari animal fabric that I bought a while back on a really good sale but had no plans one what I was going to do with it.  So, I set out on a mission to make a quilt using the 2 yards of fabric as the backing, batting, and a border and to make the postage stamp interior out of scraps of fabric that I had left from various projects.  It took some time, but as you can see the results are great.  There's all sorts of little children's characters mixed in and delightful prints.  Plus, the only thing that I didn't have in my stash was the quilting threads, the orange inner border and the batting so I didn't have to spend a bunch of time with a screaming 2 year old at the fabric store!  Bonus!  I absolutely love doing these postage stamp quilts, and they turn out fantastic, the only problem is my scrap collection is starting to get a little picked over.  It's still in pretty good shape, but I've been going through the scraps lately!

Go Bulldogs!

Wow, I've been a quilting fool lately!  The Greater Atlanta Shop Hop just finished up and while I didn't win any drawings, I did get a really cute pattern and an idea for a quilt for a recent graduate.  I just couldn't resist putting this quilt together and I can't wait until she graduates in a month or so and I can give it to her.  I think she's going to love it.  Okay, so I'm not really a UGA fan given that I didn't exactly grow up in Georgia, but I still found this quilt a blast to make and I'm sure it will get used occasionally on game day.

Postage Stamp Crazy!

Wow, what happened to the fall?  Or Christmas for that matter?  Things got a little hectic on my sewing machine this fall, I decided to make Christmas presents!  Wow, what an undertaking.  Then, I decided to back up my sewing machine and catch up on scrapbooking, well, after a month of that I'm still not caught up!  I did manage to get a really nice lap quilt done for my grandfather for Christmas though.  As a packer fan and living in Wisconsin I know he will get lots of use out of it at the nursing home!  This was my second postage stamp quilt and while they are A LOT of work I just love putting them together.  So, I've posted pictures of my grandfather's quilt on etsy.com and am offering it as a custom quilt option.  Let me know if you are interested in one!