22 January 2014

DIY changing pad cover.

Great news! Marie is expecting a brother or sister in July. I'm 4 months along now and already enjoying preparing the new nursery. The theme of our baby's room will be our beloved home country, The Netherlands.
Not a big surprise, seeing the canal houses in the picture above.....
More about them later in a new blog post. Today I"d like to share with you how to create the changing pad cover I put together the today.
I made it with waterproof canvas. The kind you normally use to cover your outdoor dinner table. Not a very thick one, which made that is was still easy to fit and to handle.  
I love this simple design. It reminds me so much of my favorite restaurants at home. Which often have this fabric as curtains. These restaurants are called 'Pannenkoekenhuizen'. Translated; Pancake Houses. They are a Dutch specialty, which I can highly recommend when you visit Amsterdam one day. 
They are different from the well known American Pancakes. I'll post the recipe here sometime soon as well.
Alright lets get down to business. Below you will find my tutorial. I had big plans, but eventually settled for the handy-house-wife style instead of the style of the great sempstress. So here comes a tutorial eligible to upgrading.....

Tutorial.
Measure all the square surfaces. Ad up 1,5cm for seam allowens to each measurement. 
For all the edges facing the bottom of the changing mattress this should be even 10cm. This will allow you to have enough material to wrap the cover around the pad and stay in place
 Trace the sides at the head and the foot of  your changing pad And at the same extra cm as described earlier. To clarify there's the picture below.  
Once this is done, you should end up with the following pattern pieces.
 First sew all the square parts together in the right order. Subsequently sew them to the head and foot pieces. Nice sides facing each other. Turn inside out and wrap around your changing pad.
Here's where I made my short cut. I did buy elastic to finish it u nicely at the bottom. However, I was afraid, because of the thick material, it would get to bumpy. That's why I settled for duct tape in the end. 
I'm not proud of it, but I know that it will work for me. Since I used easy to wipe material I'll never have to remove it anyway. And it does make the bottom nice and flat.