In watching her play with it, I realized a few adjustment should be made. In my original inception, I thought the doll mattress should be two thicknesses of the baby bumper pad I made it out of. I mean, it should be comfy right? Then when I was listening to a MyFroggyStuff Tutorial on YouTube she said something about dolls not really needing it to be comfortable in any real way. Aha! That coupled with the fact that the dolls heads were hitting the top bunk whenever they sat up with the double thick mattress and it was decided! Single layer is all I'd need for mattresses! My dear daughter also helped me to see the flaw in my thinking about needing to sew the mattress like real people were gonna be sleeping on it for the next 20 years! She wanted differing sheet patterns for all the bunks and, again in an idea I gleaned from MyFroggyStuff, pillowcases are the perfect size to make bed sheets! So since the 'mattresses' will be covered in 'sheets' they don't need to be 'perfect' and finished. As much as it pained my OCD TypeA personality to do so, I relented to leaving it imperfect in interest of getting more done. Motherhood nowadays is all about choosing priorities, eh? So, back to the 'mattresses' and how we made them!
As I said in the last blog about making a bed, I used a baby crib bumper pad to make the mattresses. I really liked this bumper because one side looked like the old fashioned ticking they made mattresses out of in the old days. Don't be aghast at my saying I cut up a bumper pad. I know how much they are new and would never! Mine was gleaned at Goodwill though, again, as is my custom, for 99cents. It has a stain on and I am sure that is why it didn't sell at the 'full price’ of like $4. Trust me, most any thrift store worth their salt will have one or two to choose from because no one ever uses them twice nowadays, or rarely. Every baby gets a new 'theme' and therefore a new bumper! So this is a great way to use up something that might otherwise end up in a landfill! I washed mine when I got it home, in hot water and dried it so any germaphobes can start to breathe again. Figured if I ruined it, it wasn't meant to be and it was only a dollar. It came out beautifully! Fluffy and nice!
So the next part is to measure how long your 'bed' is going to be, or measure it by your doll if you don't have one yet and just want the mattress. Cut off that length of the bumper, doing your best to keep the integrity of stitching as much as possible in original item.
Since it is going to be living in one of my vintage 1970s pillowcases as it's 'sheet' that raw edge is just going to stay there. Ouch. OCD be quiet!
So you put your mattress into the pillowcase and just wrap it up like you would a gift.
Tucking in corners and making it as smooth as possible.
Then throw in few safety pins and done!!
As my daughter was playing with her bunk bed, I noticed two things, first, she didn't care if the doll was claustrophobic on the very bottom tier, she just wanted another bed space, so I put a mattress on that spot as well. Then, believe it or not, she still didn't have enough bed space for all her dollies and was making little beds for them... How to get more sleeping real estate? A trundle!! That one mattress I was making with two thicknesses of bumper? It works perfect as a trundle under the bunk bed! Woot!
Oh no! Rose has no place to sleep!
Wait what's this?
Perfect!!
(I still have a small amount of finish work to do on that mattress, since it's half way done, I'll persevere and finish the trundle mattress in my original inception since it fits so well. I have enough bumper left that I will be able to make some bed pillows too... I'll show them to you when I get them done. Well, with all that said:
Now it's time for a big slumber party!!
The more the merrier!
As an aside on the bed and background 'room' I made. I had it set up as a bedroom for photos but needed to use it as a sitting room again. So I set the doll bed out of the way and realized it kind of makes two rooms to play in if I do that. Dear daughter thought that was pretty cool!
Thanks again for stopping by! See you again next time!
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