I Vowed Never to Do Piping Again

But then my friend asked me to make some bumpers for her nursery, so I attempted it once more. It really is a sweet story. They adopted two little girls, and they recently found out they were expecting their first little girl. So exciting for them.

The friend who I made them for is quite thrifty herself, so she actually found some really nice boy bumper pads at a yard sale and bought them before she found out what she was having. I ripped the whole thing apart and I used the existing piping and ties and recovered the pads to come up with this. It really cut down on the work (and the cost).

I basically just sewed a huge tube of fabric, added piping and ties, on one side, and voila. 

She loved them. As in, almost went into tears when I gave them to her at her baby shower. It's always nice giving something away when you know the person you're giving it to really appreciates it.

Birds

I totally got this idea from Mary who found the pattern here.

I tried and tried to get the birds to perch on branches, but it wasn't happening for me. Mary was able to make it work...maybe she'll post pictures of hers? :)

So instead I just hung them from the ceiling without the branches. I think it's still cute. Even cuter than that is when I hold up my little boy to touch them, they sway and spin around. He thinks it's hilarious.

(he shares a room with his sister, so there are still remenants of "girl" in here)

The pattern says to sew by hand, but I used my sewing machine. You will rarely catch me hand sewing. Also I left the tail as a raw edge. I like that it kind of looks feathery.

Fabric Bunting

Just tell me when you all get bored with nursery stuff...I  still have more where this came from. I made this banner to hang in her room/to use at a baby shower that my family threw for me. I think it adds a bit of whimsy.

I love the website Ohdeedoh. Lots of great inspiration. I had a desk job when I was first pregnant, and when it was slow, I spent a lot of time getting ideas for my "dream" nursery. I saw several different nurseries using these fabric pennant banners. (like here, here, and here)

You can buy a banner like this for anywhere from $20-$40 on Etsy, but I wanted to customize mine with  fabric I had on hand. And I wasn't in the mood to spend that much money. 

I kind of looked at this tutorial to get the main idea, and tweaked it to how I wanted it. I actually had the bias strip binding left over from some bumper pads I made, so I just cut the triangles out, and used that with them. 

The triangles measure about 5.5" across the top, and are 6" long. 

 

Love it. The best part is that I can take it down and use it again for anything--another baby shower, a party, whatever. 

Clothespin Frame

The quest for the dream nursery continues... I found this baby room a while ago and there was a clothespin frame like this hanging on the wall. I've wanted to make one ever since. 

I wanted to keep it cheap, so I found this frame at a thrift store. Lovely I know. I took the picture and glass out, then sanded the whole thing down. I was originally going to paint it white, but I stopped after sanding because I liked the look. I kind of just take it as it goes, with no set plan before. I like the crafting process to be kind of organic, for lack of a better term.

I mod-podged scrapbook paper to the clothes pins to fancy them up.

Then I pre-drilled my holes, and added these little hooks that I bought at Wal-Mart. I was originally going to use string wire, but I found some cotton yarn laying around, and I thought I would make us of it rather than buying something new.

And...done. Super simple, and relatively cheap. 

More nursery projects to come...