Sophie's Nursery

A few weeks before Sophie was born I finally finished her nursery. (NOTE: This entry is going to sound braggy, but that's because I am bragging. I worked hard to make everything perfect for Princess Sophie, and I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.)


If you read some of my older posts you saw the quilt I made for Sophie's crib. I couldn't have done that without the help of my talented friend Lucy. But after that turned out so successful I thought I would make a matching crib skirt and drapes to go along with it.

As a child my mom thought I was too much of a tom-boy so she forced me to do 4-H. I had to enter cooking and sewing projects into the county fair, but that was the extent of my sewing experience. I don't know how to read a pattern or anything like that. But a quilt, crib skirt, and drapes are all straight lines, squares, and rectangles--how hard could that be? And I have a degree in biomedical engineering, so I don't need a pattern, right?


Well, it turns out sewing those things was a lot more complicated than I expected. I made up my own pattern for the crib skirt and drapes. I think the skirt turned out really nicely, but the drapes aren't quite as perfect as I hoped. But overall, I think the finished product looks pretty good. The skirt has pink pleats and the squares across the bottom match the quilt perfectly. The other thing I am proud of is my technique of making the skirt length adjustable (theoretically). Normally skirts are sewn around a piece of fabric that goes under the mattress, but that would have required me to choose which length to make the skirt. Because the mattress is lowered as the baby gets bigger, I wanted the skirt to stay the same distance from the floor no matter what. So I made the skirt with ties that can be pulled up as the mattress is lowered. I haven't actually tried it at a different length yet, but I think it should work fine.


Also my mom cut out some "SOPHIE" letters using her wood saw and I painted them and Mod Podged on the same fabric as the quilt. Once again I am pretty pleased with the way everything turned out.


Originally I didn't want the type of changing table with open shelves, but when we bought our crib the changing table was free so we went along with it. I looked into buying baskets to put on those shelves, but they were all at least $10 each. I didn't want to spend $60+ on stupid baskets, so I got some empty boxes from work and painted them pink and brown and Mod Podged some of the matching fabric onto the front. The boxes are pretty tight in there, but I think it turned out nicely for cardboard boxes.

Also, my friend Tiffany made cute wall hangings that can be seen in the picture above. She also made an adorable mobile that can be seen above the crib in the top picture. She is crazy talented and puts me to shame.

But I am really proud of the fact that everything (decoration-wise) in Sophie's nursery is home made. I hope that someday Sophie will appreciate the things I made for her. (Okay, now the bragging is over.)