High-quality products from well-known manufacturers are beautiful, nice and professionally made. But they are not always affordable. And if you want to purchase several useful products at once (board, bag-pad and mat), expenses will increase in several times.
If your financial abilities are limited, but you really want to provide maximum comfort for your baby, you can sew pad with your hands (maybe even more than one). If you’ll find a suitable bag-pad sewing pattern on the Internet, you will have time to sew it while being pregnant. And if your husband can work with wood, you will definitely be able to make a changing board, table or even commode!
Apart from saving money, you can make all these things in an exclusive manner (in «patchwork» style, with applications, wadded, of any size and form). And most importantly, it will have the highest quality label — «Made by parents»! Luckily, the modern range of materials is really vast
How to Make a Changing Pad on Your Own?
Before starting looking for sewing patterns and materials, you have to decide on:
- Size
- Form (square, rectangle, ellipse)
- Width
- Filler and coverage materials
Recommendations on Making a Changing Pad
Before making a changing pad with your own hands, consider a few important moments, the main of which are:
- Use only high-quality, eco-friendly, hypoallergenic materials
- Make water-resistant, easily cleaned surface
- It’s better to make protective boards and headboard
- Don’t make pad of a too small size
What will be Needed for Work?
Here is a list of materials for creating the simplest type of a mat.
- Filler. Foamed polyurethane sheet, 2 cm in width. Can be found in specialized shops or on the trusted Internet sites.
- Fabric for outer covering. You can make two removable covers (on a zipper) from any fabric (cotton, jacquarette, sateen, cotton sheeting), and additionally sew two changeable water-resistant sheets from water-resistant membrane fabric (bamboo terrycloth + breathable membrane). Sheets can be attached to a pad with Velcro.
For your knowledge! You can sew two removable covers (changeable) from membrane water-resistant fabric, without making sheets on Velcro. But washing sheets is much easier than always taking off and putting on a cover.
- Zipper. If you don’t have a zipper of a required size, you can use two short zippers, inserting them so that they open from the middle to the ends
- Adhesive tape (if necessary).
Making a Pad
Having made a decision about size, you have to make calculations, taking into account extras for:
- Filler thickness
- Seam tolerances
Tip! For rectangular (square) model, you can make calculations on paper, and make marking on the fabric itself (with a pencil, chalk or edged soap leftover). If the shape is non-standard (ellipse, circle, shape of an animal), it’s better to first draw a curve on a paper (also taking into account filler thickness and seam tolerances).
Step-by-Step Instructions
- If a natural fabric is used for making cover, before cutting it should be soaked in the water of the temperature it will be washed in afterwards. Without that, the fabric will cockle after the first wash, and the cover won’t fit anymore.
- Make cutting. In case of rectangular and square models, it’s better if the cover consists of a single-piece fabric with a fold. If the form is non-standard – of two-parts fabric. Then the mattress can be used as a two-sided product, without fear that any seam will cause discomfort to the baby’s delicate body.
- Fold fabric cut in half (face inward), make the side and bottom sections even. Or fold 2 parts face to face and also make the sections even — in models of an unusual shape.
- Stitch the side seam, starting to sew down from the fold. When reaching the corner, turn 90 degrees and perform a short stitch (3 cm) along the bottom cut with a fastener. Make a second side seam in the same way. Zipper will be inserted into the un-sewn hole of the lower seam.
- Serge (or process with a zigzag stitch) the lower sections separately, the side sections together.
- Double stitch the corners of the cover at 45 degrees (to the height of the filler). This step can be omitted, but with double-stitched corners the cover looks neater.
- Serge and inseam the zipper.
- If necessary, sew removable waterproof sheets of the appropriate size, put Velcro on them (from the back side).
- Place and sew Velcro in appropriate places on the surface of the pad (you can do it on both sides, if you intend to use it as a double-sided one).
- Make a bolster (board) if necessary. Fill in with hollow fiber.
- Bolster can be fixed to the pad in several ways: sewed stationary, sew tapes along the perimeter of the pad and tie bolster with it, or, as in the case of removable sheets — with adhesive tape.
