Baby Changing Pad

Yippeee!  I finished another project.  It was close though...it sat on my coffee table 95% done for ~5 days.

I got this tutorial from Jill and it was VERY easy to follow, even for me.  It's the first time I've used iron-on vinyl, fusible fleece, and binding tape.  All very simple in the end but quite ambitious when I wasn't sure how it would go.

Here's what I did...sorry if it's not super detailed but Canada just went on the ice to play Russia!!!  GO CANADA!!

Ok.  So this is one of the things I did different from Jill.  She was lucky enough to have some really cool pre-laminated fabric.  Unfortunately the stuff they had at the local Fabricland was uuuugly.  That wasn't too big of an issue anyway because it meant I got to use two versions of the same pattern (interior & exterior):

This finished product is for my friend who has a baby boy on the way.  Her wedding had a tree theme last year so when I saw this fabric I just knew I had to use it to make her something she could use when the baby arrives.  I like this pattern as well because it's not the traditional 'boy' baby colours.  It's pretty but not too pretty that it can't be used for a boy either.  I also like it 'cause it doesn't scream baby, which I think is good because it's mommy that has to carry it around...and screaming baby needing to be changed screams baby enough already so you're accessories don't have to ;-).

Back to what I did different.  As I said, Jill used pre-laminated fabric.  I used the iron-on vinyl variety shown below instead. 

The instructions were pretty straight forward and while I doubted that it was really sticking when I peeked at it, it never did end up peeling so that was good.  I really like the grid (PAUSE CANADA SCORED, 1-0 CANADA!!!!) for ease of measuring and cutting the pattern.  I ironed on the vinyl and then cut the material.

In my doubting-it-really stuck state, I re-ironed it and it kind of splooged over one of the sides.  Not bad and really nothing to worry about since there would be binding tape added later.

Next it was time to add the two layers of fusible fleece:

I struggled with the fusible fleece momentarily.  You see, when ironing the vinyl you're not supposed to use steam so I assumed the same must be true for the fleece.  I tried ironing both sides to the fabric and it sorta stuck but not like I thought it should.  In a fit of frustration I decided to blast out some steam and woo hoo it stuck.  Yeah for me.  The fleece also spread out a bit, which meant I ended up with a little more on one side and a little less on the other.  I trimmed it off and it didn't make any difference to how my pattern looked.

Then I sewed the vinyl interior to the fleecy outside - wrong sides together.  You want to keep a very small allowance.  Otherwise you either end up trimming a bunch off or seeing the seam even after you add the binding tape.

Jill's next steps were to add the closure (sewing that was messy but thankfully my thread truly matched my webbing so it's not terribly noticeable) and to sew the 2 vertical lines where the folds would be.  Instead of pinning them while the pad was flat I decided to fold it and then pin it.  This way I ensured that the pad would actually fold in a nice way when it was done.

I'm getting quite excited at this point since I've done a bunch of work and it still looks like my example.  One of my fold lines wasn't very straight but in the end after trimming and then sewing on the binding tape you could hardly notice.  Phew!  Oh whoops, it's called bias tape not binding tape...that's what we call it on our skydiving gear.  Got my hobbies confused there for a sec.

Next was the bias tape.  I love this stuff.  It hides the ugly edge and makes it look very profesh :-)  Here's how you pin it on:

and this is after I sewed it on the vinyl side:

 

Then it was time to hand sew the bias tape to exterior.  I did little bits at a time since I'm not very good.  Honest to God my hand cramped after the first 10 minutes.  I did a little bit each night...that is until I didn't...then it sat, unfinished, mocking me.  Grrr.  Then the library came to my rescue.  A book that I ordered on another type of craft arrived (2-0 CANADA!!!!! WOOP WOOP!...bet you didn't think you'd get an Olympic play-by-play during your baby changing pad tutorial but I can't help myself - I'm Canadian and it's hockey for crying out loud - what's a girl to do).  Anyway, I told myself that I absolutely was not allowed to start the new thing without finishing this one (3-0!!  Out of Control!).

And I did finish it.  Good girl.  Here it is ready to go:

And here's a view of it unfolding:

 

I hope she likes it :-)  And that Canada keeps kickin' Russia's butt!!