Our future kid's room has a crib AND a twin bed in there for me. Yes, I will be sleeping in there with him. Apparently, our child may have sleep issues when he comes home as he will have been used to sleeping on a floor mat snuggled right next his foster mom. In order to aid in attachment, to soothe him during his grieving and to help him with his sleeping issues, I'll likely sleep in the room with him for a few weeks? months? So, for the next few months in addition to learning about sleep issues, I'll be getting the bedding ready for the twin bed. And since I have plenty of waiting, I'm DIY-ing it... =)
The DIY bedding "plan" includes:
- quilted chevron blanket
- duvet covers for 2 mini-comforters
- foam headboard cover
- skirt or cover for the box spring (we'll remove the frame to bring the bed lower to the ground)
- fun pillows
- cute snuggies and lovies (for child. not me!)
For the main blanket of the bed, I wanted to combine a few of my favorite things in bedding #1 white, #2 chevron pattern, #3 quilted, #4 colors (yes, an oxymoron of #1 -white). I wanted it to be boyish but also something I would enjoy too. I wanted to combine these with Husband's #1 favorite things in bedding: inexpensive. I agreed to this one, since I vetoed his idea of having bedding like he had in his childhood, which included batman, snoopy and gi-joe. no thanks, man. sorry, charlie.
My idea of "inexpensive" was to repurpose fabric and stuff we already had. This made me think of my hal-mun-ee (gramma) who repurposed all sorts of fabric from old shirts, jeans, bedding, towels, etc to make a super thick and heavy quilt when I was a kid. I've become my hal-mun-ee! Next thing you know, I'll be clipping newspaper articles about the benefits of tomatoes and about the nastiness of fish from Vietnam and saving them in a binder to give to my grown son. Oh hal-mun-ee.
Anyway, I digress. Right, REPURPOSING. So I'm using an old white sheet from who knows where, an old flannel sheet from momma-in-law, an ikea king-sized white duvet, and 10-yr old polyester batting that my BFF-J lovingly gave to me since her quilt for her bf-now-husband never quite came together. So far, all I had to buy was the "quilters pins" (which are "quilters" cuz they have a little crook in them for easier pinning" and the thread ---all of which was purchased 50% off. love you joann!
The "plan" (in quotes again, cuz with me, things NEVER go as planned) is to quilt lines in a chevron pattern, then add a bottom sheet to make it duvet-ish so that in the winter/california-colder months, we can add a comforter or so inside to make it warmer. and in the warmer months, it can be used by itself. Tada! Repurposed and purposeful!
My non-tutorial:
Prepped the layers: after cutting fabric to their appropriate sizes (which was difficult for me and may have included a slight nick to our hardwood floors), taped top layer to the floor, layer on the batting, flannel then sheet. Smoothed out. Lesson learned: 50 pins is not enough to baste a twin--ish sized blanket. Starting at the center and worked my way around to the edges.
Prep for quilting lines: too bad my geometry and math has deteriorated so severely that simple lines and calculations confound me. I marked out lines every 10 inches which were to be the peak of each of my chevron zig zags and layed down 2inch strips of painters tape across the blanket.
I sewed out a few zig zags to get a taste a what the quilted goodness would start to look like. Then I called Husband over to join me in marveling at the potential of cuteness that was forming. Then I cursed Husband for discovering that my painters tape trick and lack of mental acuity resulted in severly deformed and uneven zig zags.
Since I was determined to go to bed on a happier note, instead of ripping out the stitches, I just started on the opposite end.
And, I should memorialize and celebrate the fact that I did learn how to install and use my walking foot (which came, of course, after fortuitously discovering that I actually had a walking foot in my possession...I wonder what else I have that I don't know?
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