Easy DIY Crib Bumpers

So, in case you missed it, we added a sweet little girly girl to our troop late last year.  Since we’ve never found out the gender of our babies beforehand, I’ve always had very basic, very neutral crib bedding.  Because she’s our last kiddo to join us, I decided to do some redecorating in the nursery and make it fit for a little lady.  One of the first projects I was eager to tackle was recovering our beige and cream crib bumpers to pink, white, and a hint of chocolate brown.

Materials needed:
old crib bumpers to recover
1 1/2 yards each of two fabrics {inside and outside of bumpers}
1/4 yard coordinating fabric to make ties
sewing machine and supplies
walking foot {for your sewing machine}
sharp scissors and/or rotary cutter
iron and ironing board

Sewing the Bumper Covers

I began by measuring my old bumpers, top to bottom and side to side.  In my case, I’ve got two longer bumpers and two shorter ones.  I’ve seen some sets come with only two long pieces that wrap around the crib.  Work with what you’ve got!  After measuring, I added two inches to both measurements to give myself some room to work with.

If you use a slippery fabric {like minky}: Before I began to sew, I replaced my sewing machine’s presser foot with a walking foot.  Luckily my machine came with one.  If yours did not, they sell them on Amazon and in most sewing machine stores if you’ve got one nearby.  It makes a WORLD of difference when sewing slippery fabrics link minky.  If you aren’t using a soft minky or fleece fabric for any part of this, then it’s not that big of a deal.

For each bumper, I placed the outer and inner fabrics, right sides facing each other, together.  I pinned around one of the short edges and both longer sides.  I then sewed around the all three sides, leaving one of the short edges completely open.  Back stitching at both ends is a good idea!  Once the sides are sewn, I turned the fabrics right side out.  Before stuffing my old bumper into the new fabric covering, I cut the old ties off my original bumper.

I then began to stuff the bumper into the new covering.  Since I gave myself a good 2 inches of extra fabric to work with, I had enough room to use my iron to fold under the pink and minky fabrics and then used my sewing machine to sew the fourth end shut.

Sewing the Ties

As far as the ties go, my original bumpers had 24 ties, so I stuck with that amount.  You may want more or less.  I measured my fabric for the ties to be 22 x 2 inches each.  This will take awhile, but the end result looks fabulous.  Place the right side facing down on your ironing board, fold the bottom and top about half way and iron a seam.  Then fold over each end and iron a crisp edge.  Once the entire piece is ironed, fold it completely in half and iron one last time.

Once all ties are ironed, you’ll now spend a significant amount of time sewing around the edges and ends of each tie.  Again, this is a bit time consuming, but will make your ties durable and looking fantastic.

Now, I realize that some of you may be A LOT better at sewing than me, and therefore, you may want to sew your ties into your bumpers before you actually sew the bumpers shut.  I didn’t do that since that’s not how my old bumpers were put together.  To sew on my ties, I sewed them directly onto the outer sides of each bumper, in this case, directly onto the pink material.  I put one in each corner {top and bottom} and on the longer pieces, I put four more equally spaced out in the middle.  To make sure they lined up, I placed the bumper in the crib and pinned where I needed to sew my ties.  To sew, fold each tie directly in half, push the bumper {inside the new cover} away from the edge as much as possible, so it doesn’t jam your machine, and sew into place.  I back stitched over each tie three times to make sure it was secure.

And now my little miss has a bed full of pink!  I’ve got plans for a super girly and very simple crib skirt that I hope to share with all of you in a couple weeks.  Stay tuned!