A skirt for my son...sorta

So I made my son a skirt...a crib skirt that is :) Those things cost a pretty penny when purchased retail, so I bought fabric with a coupon from JoAnn Fabric's and made my own.

It's the navy blue fabric in the bunch below:

The other fabrics are for pillow covers I'm also making.

But back to the crib skirt...

I made it just before this arrived at our front door:

It's the mattress! :)

It's made by Colgate and is called the EcoClassica III.  It's an organic dual firmness (one side's firmer for infants, the other softer for toddlers) foam mattress.

We bought it on sale from Amazon.com and I was sold after reading its excellent reviews. And knowing it's organic through and through gave me great peace of mind...you know, since our baby's going to be spending a lot of face time on this thing :)



Another perk? It's only 8 pounds! So sheet changes will be a breeze not having to lift a heavy coil mattress out of the crib (which can weight 20+ pounds):



Not that I can't lift 20 pounds but I have a feeling that after long days and sleepless nights with feedings, if a sheet change is needed the last thing I'm going to look forward to is straining my aching back some more by having to lift a mattress that's heavier than it needs to be.

We threw on a fitted sheet I found at target and 'styled' it with a navy pillow. Btw, the pillow's just for the photo...it won't be staying once there's a baby in the crib :)

I like that the same colors in the polka dot curtains are also in the sheet, but in larger donut-like circles. Mmmmmm donuts.... :)



So here's what the whole shebang looks like:

To make the crib skirt I followed Young House Love's tutorial. I prewashed my fabric and then just hemmed all the edges with Heat n Bond and secured it to the metal mattress frame using velcro around the left, front, and right sides.

 

Tell you what, this stuff is a non-sewer's best friend :)

Here's a cost of breakdown of the items I used to make the crib skirt:

Fabric $5.98 (bought with 50% off coupon)
Velcro: $0.97
Iron-on hem tape: $1.99

Total cost: $8.94, plus tax

So for under $10 I made a pretty decent crib skirt that'll conceal storage bins I plan to use under the crib for outrown and not-grown-into-yet clothes. Pretty sweet deal when you consider store-bought crib skirts can run you $20 or more, like this similar option I found online for $39:

So I saved myself some dough and the crib is now ready!

Now I just need to get on with hanging the 'SLEEP' letters on the wall above the crib - I still haven't figured out how I want to do that...  :/

Anywho, anyone else not a sewer and use hemming tape and an iron like me? I find it sew easy! Pun intended :)