Baby Decor

My oldest daughter is an interior designer. She is expecting her first child, a little girl whose name will be Elsie Paige, on March 10th. Given her background she had a vision for the baby's nursery. She chose neutral colors, giraffes and a splash of pale pink as the inspiration.

She asked me if I would make the drapes and some pillow covers. She also wanted to replace the taupe ties on the bumper pads with pink ones. Of course I said yes even though it had been a very long time since I've made any kind of curtains, let alone drapes. Fortunately the drapes were a simple design, no pleats or anything crazy like that.

I made a few muslin sample pillow covers before doing it with the "real" fabric to make sure they were going to be just right. I chose to do an envelope back pillow.

Since they are going in a baby's room I figured that they will get washed often so I did French Seams on them. I think they will hold up better than just a regular 1/4" - 1/2" seam, especially since some of the fabrics are going to ravel.

Here are all five covers. I only had one pillow form so I put my personal favorite on the pillow form.

The drapes are 7'3" long (87 inches), finished. That is REALLY long and my working conditions aren't very conducive to working with fabric that long. I didn't want to chance making a mistake with that much yardage so I made one panel from muslin first. When I had it all figured out I can't tell you how many times I re-measured the good fabric to make sure I got it right. There are ties that attach the drapes to the rod. The leopard print you see in the pillow above is the fabric for the ties.

As I sewed the ties I backstitched over each one to hold them more securely since there would be so much weight on them. I made a 2 1/2" facing at the top for the ties. Going back to my garment sewing days, I remembered that when I used to sew a facing into a garment, I stay stitched it in place which reinforced the ties yet again. Then I topstitched the facing in place.

Here they are hanging in in the nursery. Isn't that leopard print a great little added detail? So much cuter than doing them in the pink like the rest of the drape.

Last but not least comes the bumper pad project. I thought all I would have to do is take the little ties out and slide the new ones in. It just wasn't going to work like that. Think of the bumper pads as a very bulky quilt. I had to take out the binding on the two long sides. I removed the old ties and marked where they belonged as I went along. Here is a section of bumper pad and the original ties.

There are two pieces to each tie and there are two ties in each spot. The point at the end could have been tricky. I got lucky though. It is a 22 1/2 degree angle and that is an angle that is built into my QuiltCut2. Cutting them was really easy! The hardest part was turning them right side out. The fabric was bulky and the weave made it hard to poke out the points. Here's my pile of ties sewn and pressed.

The whole time I was working on these my husband kept criticizing it. He couldn't understand the decision to swap them out. I knew what the final product was going to look like and I knew it was going to be worth it. Here's a glimpse of a small section all finished.

Now for the big reveal. The focal wall is giraffe spots that my daughter drew and painted.

See how that little detail of changing the ties from taupe to pink changed the whole look of the bumper pads? As soon as my husband saw them all tied onto the crib, he got it and complimented our daughter on the way it looked. He admitted that this tiny detail really made a difference.

Little Elsie's room is ready. We're just waiting for her to make her appearance.

Happy Sewing,

Carol

The Importance of ICE - Unfortunately First Hand Experience

On February 18, 2014 my nephew Jason Nicholas Mastroianni just didn't wake up. Jason was only 24 years old. Who would have thought that someone so young could just die in his sleep?

Jason's roommates found  him and did everything they were supposed to do. Unfortunately no one knew how to contact my brother, sister-in-law or Jason's brother. Eventually someone figured out how to get in touch with his girlfriend. She didn't know how to reach my brother either. Eventually she remembered she knew someone who knew something about the family. Finally at 5:00 pm my brother and sister-in-law were told by a detective that their son was dead. My heart aches for Rick, Laura and Andrew. To lose a child or brother so suddenly and at such a young age is tragic. The fact that it was so many hours before they found out is heart wrenching.

Everyone's first reaction is, why didn't they just look in his phone? Most of us have our phones password protected so if we lose it no one can access our information. That is probably why no one could get that information from his phone. Here is where ICE (In  Case of Emergency) comes into play. 

I know that emails have circulated about this off and on for awhile. It is really important that you have the people you want to have contacted in an emergency listed that way in your phone. Newer phones have an Emergency Dialing feature so that even if your phone is locked, an early responder can reach those people. I have had my phone set up this way for a year or so; I found the feature on my phone as I was editing contacts when I got a new one. Since we were traveling so much I wanted to make sure that if something happened to one or both of us, our family would be notified.

I'm sure every phone is slightly different but the principle is the same. On my Android phone as you scroll down the contact information there is a heading that says "Groups." This is where you can put friends, family, co-workers, etc. There is also ICE, emergency contacts, listed. My phone will allow me to make 4 people my ICE contacts. I have my husband and all three of our daughters listed here.

If you have an iPhone here's a link to one way to set it up http://rnn10.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/how-to-set-up-an-ice-contact-on-your-iphone/. My youngest daughter, Renee (the one on the left in the photo above) is my techie. She found a way to put important things like allergies to medications in there too. She is pregnant and I had her put that along with her due date in her iPhone.

If neither of these suggestions work for your phone, just Google "In Case of Emergency and your particular phone" and I'm sure you'll find instructions online. I tested it with a couple different types of phones and something always popped up.

When you're a "grown up" you think about it being important for people to be able to reach you in the event of an emergency. When you're a teenager, 20 or even 30 something, you still think you're invincible and that you are going to live until you're "old." Thankfully most of them do. But as is the case in my family right now, that doesn't always happen. 

So please take just a couple minutes to program your ICE contacts into your phone. I urge you to encourage your spouse, children and grandchildren to do the same. Since things like this travel over the Internet and we never know what to believe, feel free to send a link to this blog post to your loved ones so they can see some of the faces of those affected by this first hand. I hope that personalizing it will make people see that it isn't just a random concept floating around online. It is real and it is important.

Cherish your family and friends. Give extra hugs and I love yous. We never know when a loved one will be taken from us.

Carol