Gloria's Nursery: Bedding

Since I've decided on the theme for Gloria's nursery (pale blue, yellow, and pink) I've been scouring the internet for affordable, not too themey, pretty, baby girl bedding.

Turns out: IMPOSSIBLE to find.

I looked at Target, Overstock, Amazon, Walmart, Babies r Us, Pottery Barn (that one was out because of the affordable category), Land of Nod (look at same reason as Pottery Barn), etc.  I was feeling pretty darn discouraged.

Then I started thinking ... how about doing some of this myself?

I am by NO MEANS a seamstress.  Seriously people.  I haven't touched a sewing machine for nearly 15 years.  I don't even own one.  My "sewing kit" at home is pretty embarassing.  I got it at Hobby Lobby for $4.99.  My best friend is sewing her daughter's bedding.  I SO wish I could do that but I just don't have the skills nor the equipment, so I had to try and stay affordable while realizing that I wasn't as talented.  I could sew a blanket.  That's about as far as my skills go.

 The first thing I did was find fabrics that I liked.  I didn't know WHY I was necessarily looking for that but my guess was, it would at least be a step in the right direction.  I went on etsy and looked up custom baby bedding.  They are all quite out of my price range, but I knew it would at least let me know what I was thinking in terms of colors, what my taste was, etc.

That's when I found ...

The Kumari Garden collection.

What I like about it:  it's bright, not too overkill, has the colors I'm looking for, and looks unlike any other bedding set I've found.  Buying the entire set (skirt, bumper, sheet, and blanket) can run anywhere between $300 - $450 dollars.  They are BEAUTIFUL, don't get me wrong.

But I don't have that much money to spend on bedding.  Especially since the crib skirt only lasts as long as the crib is up and the bumpers aren't on there too long either. 

I found picutres on etsy that made me drool and noticed things I liked from each set ...



While I'm still not COMPLETELY decided on what fabrics I'll choose, I have been playing around with it some and landed on this for now.

The picture on the left is simply to see what the bumper fabric looks like.  I don't like the crib skirt being 3 tiered for our room since it's all modern furniture.  It's about piecing things together that you like and making it your own ... hence that "custom" word.

I found someone willing to do the bumper (top picture in middle) and the sheet for the combined price of about $103.  As for the blanket, instead of adding that for $65 from the same seller, I found another that was willing to make the picture on the right for $33.  Great!

Now for the expensive crib skirt.  I looked on youtube and found that even someone without any sewing expertise can use an iron!  A crib skirt for $20?  Sounds affordable enough to me!  This video show you how to make a crib skirt, with simply fabric, iron, and some adhesive tape. 

So that's where we are FOR NOW.  Sure, I'll probably change my mind in terms of what fabric I want and where, but I'm pretty sold on the fabric patterns and that blanket for now and apparently, that was a big time commitment, but totally worth it.