My DIY Crib Bedding

Attention professional sewers!!  Don't judge.  This was actually my very first time ever sitting down at a sewing machine.  I know - why did I think I could tackle something like crib bumpers and a 6 layered ruffle crib skirt if I'd never sewn before??  Because that's how I roll - I just kind of jump on these tasks and go with it (much to my husband's constant amusement...)  Anyhoo -

So I knew I couldn't tackle this without some guidance, especially given the fact that I don't own a sewing machine ;)  so I enlisted a sweet lady here in our hometown who sews for a living and has an in-home sewing studio.  She agreed to give me sewing lessons, during which time we would make Tessa's baby bedding.  So every Sunday (and some Saturday) afternoons, when the boys laid down for naps and daddy was occupied with his Playstation 3, I went to her studio for lessons.

First came the cutting.  Oh my goodness.  I would never have guessed how much time we would spend just simply cutting the fabric - bumper pieces, bumper ties, ruffles, cording....  we spent at least two afternoons just cutting the fabric into sections and strips.  My second surprise was the amount of ironing I would be doing.  Holy moly!  We pressed seam after seam.  Finally, on about my 2nd or 3rd lesson, I got to sit down at the sewing machine.  I'll admit, it was VERY intimidating at first.  I constantly felt like I was about to make a major boo boo.  I went VERY SLOWLY at first.  I think this is when my teacher probably realized just what a project she had taken on ;)  But after a few sessions, and more and more time in the hot seat, I did become more comfortable.

Eventually, the fabric started to actually form pieces that looked very similar to crib bedding -

A couple more sessions later  (and a lots of time stuffing 15" foam into an opening the size of my fist), we had our bumpers!

After the bumpers were finished, we tackled my favorite part of the whole bedding - the ruffled crib skirt.  Now although this is my favorite part of the bedding, this was my LEAST favorite part of sewing the bedding.  Whew!  Those ruffles wore me out!  The sewing, scrunching, pinning and sewing again.... by the end of those two days, I could have seriously done without seeing another ruffle for a WHILE.  After day one - our bed skirt looked like this -

Doesn't look like much, but after another day dedicated to ruffles, we had ourselves a crib skirt -

I couldn't wait to run home and put it on the crib, but the crib was disassembled until last weekend.  After Brandon got the room painted, we put the crib together, and put our girl's bedding on.  So here it is, my first ever sewing project, Tessa's hand-made crib bedding:

(excuse the poorly-tied bows - I had a few "helpers during this photo op)

Now I realize the bed would look better if it were in a girly antique white, but "you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit!"  So we'll just stick with the expresso colored crib just as it was when we bought it for the Willster :)    

There will be another nursery post eventually, when we get a little closer to the finish line.  I still have curtains and wall decor to finalize, but I wanted to share my project with you.  Be sure and let me know what you think :))

Swimming and Sewing Lessons

Our little family has accomplished a lot this week!  This past weekend, I finally finished sewing Tessa's crib bedding.  Whew! This little project took me waaaayyyy longer than I ever thought it would - not because I thought I could zip through it, but mostly because I just didn't account for just how much there was to it. 

I've been spending just about every Sunday and a few Saturday afternoons for the past 6 or 7 weeks in the basement of a local sewer's (is that how you say that?) house.  When I initially decided to make the bedding myself, this sweet lady offered to help me learn to sew and I took her up on it.  I'm not sure she knew just how much she was getting herself into, considering I had ZERO sewing experience, but she has been so sweet to spend so much time teaching me the basics.  I'll wait until I can actually put the bedding on the crib to give you lots of details about the bedding.  The crib is dissassembled at the moment, but we're working on getting the room to a place where we can assemble it.  The bedding reveal will probably be a post of itself, so stay tuned....  Here's a little sneak peak to keep you hangin' :)

Will has also had a big week.  He had his very first swimming lessons and really enjoyed it.  He went four days this week and is technically done with lessons, but we're going to make every effort to continue working with him this summer based on the techniques our swim instructor gave us.  For those of you who weren't aware - up until this summer, Will has had a GINORMOUS fear of pools.  Not water, just pools.  We're not really sure where his fear came from considering he's had no major incident that could have resulted in this fear, but nonetheless we've really been unable to enjoy the pool for the past two summers because he screamed (and cried and shook) so badly that we really learned to avoid it.  By the time we realized that his fear wasn't going to subside on its own last summer, it was too late to get him enrolled in any lessons, so I made sure to get him enrolled this year.  I think I called this instructor in February?  Seemed way early at the time, but I was bound and determined to get him the help he needed to avoid spending the whole summer dodging the pool.

This particular instructor came very highly recommended and gave private lessons, which is exactly what Will needed.  There's no way he would have benefitted from group-style lessons.  Before Will started his lessons, he would get in the pool with arm floaties on, but insist on being held and/or holding your hand the entire time he was in the pool.  Even though he could touch with his head clearly above the water level, he would not let go.  He would stick his head under the water voluntarily and even jump off the side, but he just wouldn't let go of my arm.  This was a great improvement however, over last summer when he screamed hysterically when he got in. 

His instructor spent this week with him without floaties pulling him through the water while he kicked and learned to float on his belly.  He has a real tendancy to want to pull his legs down and kick bicycle style (which only makes you sink).  His teacher thought he might have been in a life-vest at some point because of the way he wanted to swim vertically, rather than float on his belly.  To my knowledge, he's never been in a life vest, but his tendancy seems normal, considering he's never had to float in the water.  The only time that he's ever actually gotten in the water, he's been able to stand and touch.  That makes sense, right?  She also put diving toys on the bottom of the steps and had Will floating and going under to pick up the toys.  She recommended that we get him some goggles like the ones he used during lessons, so that's on our to-do list.  So while he's not swimming on his own yet, he is more comfortable in the water and he actually likes the toy-retrieval kind of games.  So based on her recommendations, we'll spend the rest of the summer helping him learn to float on his belly and playing the diving games with him in the shallow water.  She said that if we can eventually turn the belly floating into swimming this summer, that would be great, but not to stress over it.  I would just be happy if he could get comfortable enough to enjoy the pool this summer and float and play along with his brother.  I hope to get him back in the pool this weekend if our schedules and the weather cooperates.  I know once Tessa gets here, our pool time will be nonexistant so I really need to spend the next few weeks reinforcing what he learned this week to keep him comfortable.  I'm a bad momma and have zero pictures of him during his lessons :(  I didn't want to distract him by standing on the sidelines snapping pics.