The Craig Family Logbook: Crib Rail Cover

In light of the recent development of Jacob scooting around, and the toothers that are starting to come in... I decided it was time to protect my BEAUTIFUL crib! I saw this idea on pinterest and decided I had to make one. It was actually a lot more work than I thought for (It took me about 6 hours), but I am VERY much a novice on the sewing machine.

How CUTE is he?

Here is the HOW TO:

Material:

1 yard of fabric (maybe less depending on your crib)

1 yard of batting

1. Measure the length of the front of the crib you are making the cover for from inside corner to inside corner. Add 2 inches to this measurement for your length. I decided to make mine 13 inches wide, but I have a pretty fat crib rail. If you’d like to customize your own width, just take your tape measure and wrap it around the crib rail until it tightly touches underneath, then add 2 inches to this measurement. So, for example, I cut my fabric to 54″ (the full width of fabric) x 15″ for the front guard.

2. Cut your batting to the exact width you want your final measurement to be. Since you only have a yard of this, you are going to have to sew together two pieces for the long guard. Again, make sure you account for seams when you cut the two pieces. My final quilted piece ended up being 51 1/2″ x 13″.

3. Lay your decorative fabric strip face down, fold up the sides half an inch and press with an iron, starting with the long sides first, followed by short sides.

4. Center the batting, right side up on top of the decorative fabric. Then fold the decorative fabric half an inch over the quilted fabric, press and pin.

5. Make your ties. (I choose to add button holes for a different look -- This requires a little more work) I cut the ties (4) 3″ x 8″ and then sew in button holes --

6. Since all cribs are different, I’m not going to bother with telling you exactly where I placed my ties. (But, I DID forget to look at where the rails are and just measured... So make sure you plan your tie placement around your crib rails too) I just measured so that the ties were evenly spaced! Next time I will take the raw guard and placed it over the crib, then marked with some pins where I wanted each tie so that it would be centered between the crib rails. :)

7. Lay your raw gaurd piece back face down and place each tie where you marked, making sure it’s up all the way underneath the edge of the folded seam over the batting.

8. Add your buttons

9. Straight stitch around the entire guard at the edge of the folded seam closest to the exposed quited fabric. Then fold the ties back and stitch again all the way around, this time closest to the outer edge. I also reinforced each tie by back-stitching over each one.

10. Place over your crib rail, and button in place!