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| Organic Duvet Cover, print by Andrea Lauren |
For the past few weeks, I've been working on a project for a friend. What happens when you put two pregnant women together with the idea to make a couple bed sheets? An entire nursery bedding design project, that's what!
My friend approached me to help her with custom sheets for her toddler and baby. Having recently moved back to the States from years in Paris, she has a Danish crib/toddler cot from Leander. The Leander is oval, similar to the Stokki, but more of a rounded rectangle oblong shape. The crib (shorter than a standard size) extends into a Junior bed (longer than the standard size toddler bed). This presents a challenge, as there is very little available bedding, if not only plain basic white or natural color (BORING) - and quite costly at that. So her only other option has been Etsy makers for custom bedding. Having recently opened my Etsy shop, she wanted to give me a crack at it before searching.
Although we are not that far apart, she in Manhattan and I in Long Island, this was a long-distance project. She is a busy and prestigious SVP juggling a stressful job, 2-1/2 year old toddler, and a challenging pregnancy. Luckily, I don't have the work struggle, only the almost-3-year old and a difficult pregnancy, but needless to say I have little reason to commute to the city. We did manage to get together once for a playdate and mattress tracing session.
We started out trading ideas through email and a secret Pinterest board. We hunted for fabrics online, and for theme ideas. She ultimately decided that A) she didn't like any of the available fabrics, and B) if she did like them, they were the wrong color. She found a print on
Spoonflower that she liked by a very popular print designer, Andrea Lauren, called
Constellation. It was meaningful to her personally - thinking about the night sky, the heavens, and teaching her son about the moon and stars as spiritual symbols.
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| Finished Organic Sateen Duvet Cover |
The project grew when I asked my friend, "So what blanket or comforter does your son use? and what pillow does he use?" I wanted to make sure everything coordinated. But her answer was, "He doesn't have any, does he need those?" Yes! Of course! He's getting a big boy bed, he needs to sleep like a big boy, and if at first he doesn't use them properly, he will soon. But she couldn't find a comforter or duvet in her color scheme, or toddler size. So we decided on a specific pillow, duvet, and cover using the Constellation print in Teal to match her mod teal / tan / lime room.
The next issue at hand was the ripped and torn cover she was battling with that came with the mattress. A replacement was needed but hard to find - and what about potty training the toddler who would now be sleeping on it? Would he have accidents that would ruin the foam mattress? My answer, yes, absolutely, every kid will have a wet bed, even if it's once a month. And no matter what you do to prevent the leak, or if you think he's night-trained, there will always be a leak. Mattress protection is needed - yet all I could find online was a little oval pad that reminded me of when I tried putting small lap-pads under my baby's sheets. They shift and wrinkle. We'd need something more tailored for her oblong junior bed - which does not exist.
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| Fitted oblong waterproof mattress protector with bamboo fleece |
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| Detail of fitted waterproof mattress protector |
As I considered a solution for waterproofing the beds, and with the duvet cover swatches on the way, we used our Pinterest inspirations to come up with some original artwork. I sketched by hand and produced color options and print repeats on my computer. Eventually, after some late-night texts and email discussions, I sent off to her a mini catalog to finalize her order. The most challenging part of the project is actually costing everything, and making sure the pricing doesn't get out of control, and then redesigning to bring down costs. I am very good at this part, but unfortunately I can't control the cost of materials or wait for sales when we have specific ideas and a deadline.
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| Dark Teal Constellation print and original prints colored to match perfectly |
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| Coordinating original cloud moon star print artwork |
It's been a 6 week process, but all steps necessary to get good results. One step is crucial, however costly: getting swatches. I ran into an issue where Spoonflower has changed their basic cotton quality to retain color better. I had tried it, since I've had quite an issue with fading and lines in my prints in the past. Upon first touching, and then washing, the scratchy new Basic Cotton "Ultra" fabric we decided it wasn't going to be good enough. The colors were more bold - but the quality suffered.
We switched to a more expensive Kona, but when I got the cloud fabric, the colors didn't contrast, and there were large areas where the ink rubbed off. My iron even turned blue! Whether this was a dud print or the standard, I wasn't taking any chances. Spoonflower helped me quickly with many suggestions and above and beyond service to get it right. Luckily, they let me in on testing new Kona Ultra not yet available to the public, as well as a trial swatch of the Lawn Ultra to compare.
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| Cloud Moon Star printed on regular Kona Cotton. Hey, where are my aqua clouds? What's up with all that ink that rubbed off? !!!! |
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| These are better! My clouds are back! The new Kona Ultra gets soft when washed AND keeps the color bright. |
What simply started as "I need a couple sheets" turned into a full bedding project. End of the day, I set to work gathering materials, printing fabrics and sewing everything from the mattress up. We ended up with 2 tailored waterproof mattress covers using EcoPUL and thick organic flannel, 2 junior bed sheets in 2 prints with pillow cases, 1 baby crib sheet, 1 snap-closure duvet cover with matching 18" throw pillow with cover.
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| Dining room / Cutting room... big patterns pieces! |
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| Planet Print pillow case |
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| Planet print for sheet, drawn with paintbrush marker (shown before elastic insertion) |
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| Spaced Out Stars pillow case |
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| Spaced Out Stars fitted sheet with encased elastic |
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| 18" Square throw pillow with envelope cover |
I am still waiting on the final baby sheet fabric in cloud print to arrive next week, but have sent everything else over so the toddler can get to his big boy bed right away. The baby is due any day now, and he needs time to transition to his new bed before that change happens. It was a fun project, but deadlines no longer loom, so I feel a little refreshed. Maybe I'll even get a nap.
Update:
Here is the beautiful Cloud Moon Star fabric used for the Leander Baby Cot sheet:
