Crib Mattress Cover
I'm finally getting back into working on my son's room. The kids are currently using a mattress on the floor as a crash pad but that mattress will eventually need to go into the Murphy bed I have planned. We still need a crash pad, though, so I decided to use an old crib mattress we had. I needed a cover for the mattress but they can be pretty pricey, so I decided to just make my own.
Crib Mattress Cover | Set Up
I previously made a cover for our nugget couch with a soft pink fabric. I had enough extra fabric that I decided to make the cover for the mattress out of it as well. I also bought a 30-inch sports zipper so it's a little bit more durable. This way I can take it off and wash it if I need to. I laid out all of the fabric, and put the mattress on top of it. I decided to not worry about measuring anything and instead just based it on the size of the mattress. I cut out the top and the bottom of the mattress, leaving about an inch of seam allowance all the way around. To be honest, it probably would've been easier if I'd measured this and then I'd used my cutting board and my rolling cutter, but my cutting board is at my parents' house so I'll make up for any imperfections when I'm sewing.
For the sides, I put the side of the mattress along the fabric and cut the strips I needed and giving about an inch of seam allowance on each side. When everything was completely cut out, I had 6 pieces of fabric plus the zipper. That's a top, a bottom, two long sides, and two short sides. Once everything was cut out, I started pinning. I started with the zipper first. When sewing a zipper, especially if you want the zipper to be a little bit more hidden, you want to sew it in the correct direction onto the correct side of the fabric. With the fabric I'm using, there isn't necessarily a right side or a back side, so I just went with the side I liked the best. I decided the most efficient way would be for me to pin everything and then sew everything instead of going back and forth. Once I pinned the zipper to the short side, I took the top piece and pinned the other three side pieces to it so I could just run all of that through the sewing machine when I was ready.
Crib Mattress Cover | Sewing
When sewing zippers, especially thicker zippers like the one I'm using, the physical zipper can get in the way sometimes. I like to start my machine up by the zipper and then move the zipper out of the way so I'm able to continue the piece of fabric and the zipper through the machine a little bit further. Then I can take the piece of fabric back out and push the zipper all the way back up to the end. This ensures that I've sewn past the zipper and it's out of the way. When a project that's going to see a lot of wear like this one, I like to use the zigzag pattern on the machine, instead of a straight stitch, because I feel like that's a lot more durable.
Before moving on, I decided to take the short piece I had sewn the zipper to and pin that to the remaining side of the top piece, making sure that I did it correctly so the zipper would show on the outside. Once that was pinned, I fed all of it through the machine. It was super easy to do. I have found going at a slower pace with a sewing machine allows me to have a lot more control instead of trying to fly through really fast. Since I had all four sides already pinned, it was really fast to pump them through the machine. Once all four of the sides were sewn to the top, I pinned the bottom to the each side. I personally like to do my corners last, so I didn't pin those yet. Once everything was pinned again, I started feeding everything through the machine a second time. This is where things can get a little bit tricky, especially with fabric getting bunched up or in the wrong place or sewn incorrectly. I'm not a professional when it comes to sewing, but I am a believer that everyone should know how to use a sewing machine. Just the basic stuff like how to sew a zipper on or how to make a basic cover for something. I feel like it's a basic life skill everyone needs to have. I have really fond memories of a neighbor teaching me and a few of my friends growing up and I've now started teaching my daughter and eventually teach my son when he's old enough because, like I said, I feel like its an important life skill to have.
Once everything was sewn I took the time to cut off all the extra seam allowance. Once I did that, I turned it right side out, and then I put it over the mattress. It was a little tight getting it over the mattress, but I knew that was going to be the case because the zipper is just a little bit short of the length of the mattress, especially once sewn in. I'm not worried, though, because it just means it will stay nice and snug.
Like I said, I'm not a professional when it comes to stuff like this, but I love that I can do this on my own and I don't have to buy it from somebody else. Is it perfect? No. But I'm happy with it and happy I can show the kids how to do something like this in the future. So, I'm not letting "perfect" stand in the way of an accomplishment and am overall just really happy with how it turned out!
