Good Questions: Nursery Bedding Textiles

Kristen is making her own crib bedding for soon-to-be-born baby girl. She sent us an email with this picture and asked: I am planning on making the bedding for our daughter, who is due June 25th.

I am in love with this pattern. I am looking for some suggestions for coordinating patterns. I was thinking pink or green polka dots, or maybe a multi-stripe? Would love to get some suggestions for other fabrics which would coordinate with sophistication and not look overly cutsey. Thanks!

Dear Kristen:

Congratulations on the baby. We love the Apples & Pears fabric you've chosen. For a coordinating fabric, how about Freckles in mint?

If you want to pump up the pink consider Marais Stripe by Alexander Henry.

Fellow Editor Carrie suggests this and this. Anyone else have some good suggestions for Kristen?

Comments (9)

I think that a tiny dot pattern would be really nice? Is the pear pattern for the bumper?

I like the polka dots idea...here's a green field with tiny white polka dots: Bailey Dot http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/bldtgr.html

This is a wavy windowpane check in red that would be cute, too: Elsie's Kitchen Wavy Check
http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/wvchr.html

For somthing really fun in limited doses, as an accent pillow or curtain tie-back, a big floral like this: Imagination Asterisk
http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/imgaskpk.html

Woah, I LOVE that polka dot pattern!

I vote green dots! There is also the Kiwi dumb dot from Michael Miller. I really like that one.

In case you're planning to make a crib bumper: Everything I've read recently says no bumper is safer. Of course the makers of $400 bedding sets don't want you to know this. But since you're making the bedding yourself, that's one less piece to sew.

Hi everyone,

This is Kristen, the crazy mom-to-be who is planning on sewing a set of bedding while nine months pregnant!

Thank you so much for all your suggestions. I love the "Imagnation Asterisk" fabric that was suggested.

I too am leaning towards some combination of pink and green dots, but I love that stripe too... decisions, decisions.

In terms of what I am planning on making:
crib skirt- simple, one inverted pleat; using apple/pear fabric
bumper- using pear/apple fabric. i know there is a bunch of debate about bumper safety, but we're going to start out with one and see how it goes. of course, once the baby starts to stand, we will remove from the crib
small baby quilt- using mix of fabrics
pillows for glider- one with an initial monogram; another with an appliqued pear
window valances- in apple/pear fabric

Any hints/suggestions as to the best way to accomplish this endeavor would be greatly appreciated!!

If you haven't already chosen a pattern, I used Simplicity 9315 for a simple bedskirt with single pleat effect. It was a snap. It includes bumper instructions as well as window valance, quilt, etc.

And to the makers of cool $400 crib sets, figure it out folks. Give your potential customers more flexibility and I wouldn't have made my own. I wasn't willing to pay $400 for a sheet and bedskirt. What was I supposed to do with an useless pillow, quilt, and bumper! You can't use any of them in a crib!

Good luck Kristen!

My mom made the bedding set for my kids' nursery per my instructions since I was too big to reach my sewing machine(!). The crib skirt, bumper, quilt field, and valances were all the same fabric, as you plan. We used a big yellow windowpane check. The quilt backing, valance lining, and sheets were a coordinating fabric, a small yellow gingham. That gingham was also used to make a ruffle around the changing pad cover. The quilt design, reversible changing pad cover, and accents on the valances all brought in contrasting fabrics in blue (a solid blue and a blue/yellow plaid). Everything was piped in white.

You could do the white piping as well, it would look really crsip with your fabric, or you could make your own piping from a gingham or polka dot. We waited to find out the gender for each kid, but if I had known about a girl ahead of time, I would have worked a pom-pom trim in somewhere...the valances or a pillow or something.

I think doing the quilt backing and pillow backs in a contrasting fabric would be really cute...the stripe would be great for that. You could also do one side of the bumper in the apple/pear and the other side in contrast. I love that look since you see both sides on a bumper at the same time, but it depends on how busy of a look you're after.

One helpful tip...make a crib skirt that goes all the way around, even if you are intending to place the crib against a wall. You never know when your needs might change...I was stuck with the crib against the wall even after moving to a bigger house since my crib skirt was only three-sided.

I hope you post pics when it's done!