Hazel's crib bedding

I finished it! This past week I have used every moment of my spare time, for the most part, to make Hazel's crib bedding. We got a mini crib (the same as a regular crib - it's not a porta crib, just smaller dimensions - closer to the size of a pack n play but with a real mattress etc.) to go in our room since we are lacking in space. We have 3 bedrooms but can really only use 2 (2 are on the third floor and 1 is on the first floor and we can't have tiny kids being 2 floors below - so it is our office instead). Anyway, I am a tiny bit bummed that I don't get to do any sort of "nursery" for our new baby, but hello SLAP in the face, we are just so blessed to be having her I feel incredibly grateful for that. BUT I AM trying to make her little corner of our room a special place that feels welcoming and "hers". I started off by making her crib bedding. (I wasn't even sure I would do a bumper because I have mixed feelings about them...but I figured it would be a little protection for the baby when her big sister comes and tries to stick her hands through the slats to give her lots of love - when we don't want her to wake her up or poke her eye out, ha!).

The thing about mini crib sizing is that there aren't a lot of options for bedding, at least that I found. You can get it custom made - but then it's well over the price of making it yourself. Or you can find one option for each gender at Babies R Us, but if you ask me it was pretty darn ugly. So, of course I took the matter into my owns hands and home.

I have been in love with this designer bedding - the Matteo Tat from Layla Grace - for sometime (click here to see it). But who spends over $500 on crib bedding? Certainly not me. So I eye-balled it and studied the pictures and tried to replicate it as best I could. I had to just do it free-hand as there are no patterns or tutorials for this sizing (and I'm too lazy to do the math to convert anything). So, I made the fitted crib sheet (by far the hardest part of the project for me - well, not super hard, just kind of tricky) the bumper and pillow and crib skirt. To ge the "tat" effect, I ripped the fabric rather than cutting it with scissors - I was nervous when I started ripping away at the $60 worth of fabric that I bought, but it all worked out and I love the end result. It took 8 yards of fabric to do all of it, plus the batting for the bumper, and some elastic and thread, oh, and the pillow insert. The fabric was a good deal at $6.99/yard and I got 40% off with a coupon for the batting and pillow insert. It ended up costing me just under $100 to make - a great savings of $400! And the satisfaction of putting in every stitch for the sweet little baby girl who will be sleeping in it :)

And there you have it, Hazel Grace's Bedding. Her Daddy says "it's very girly". I sure hope she likes the ruffles as much as I do! (I am also laughing at myself because before having girls I was never a ruffle-lover myself! Maybe there is a reason God is sending me another girl!)