Sewing for the baby

Baby #7 is on his way and I need to get crackin'!

I have tons of left over boy stuff because I learned a long time ago that when you have, or expect to have, a large family, you don't get rid of clothing until it is dead. Kids clothes really can last for awhile because they grow so quickly. I have a tote full of boy clothes. But weirdly I have no newborn or small stuff. It all starts at 6 months. 

I also do not have some boy basics, like blankets and a Boppy cover. I do have the Boppy pillow, in fact, I had to buy a second one when the twins came. But I could not find a boy cover I liked. And the ones that were "ok" were, in my opinion, far too expensive for what is basically a pillow case. A curved pillow case, but still a pillow case.

$11 for a pillowcase? I think not

So I decided I could make one. It couldn't be hard right? I had a girly cover:

So I could, seemingly, wing it and make one. I looked online, certainly someone had done this before. Sure enough there were tons of tutorials. But they all seemed to link back to one in particular:

Boppy cover pattern

I opted to print the pattern and save any heartburn later. But I knew I didn't want a zipper. I wanted easy on easy off. So when I cut my fabric, I added 2 inches to the bottom portion of the pattern to allow for it to fit inside where the top portion was, in lieu of zipping closed.

My fabric came from the clearance rack at my local Wal-Mart. It was 86 cents a yard. Seriously who could pass that up?

It took a yard and some change (actually it took a yard, I bought extra because it was 86 cents).

Somehow I ended up with a back piece that was much larger than the front, so I trimmed it down and sewed it together in the middle trying my best to match up the chevron pattern.

Then I got to  sewing. First I hemmed the two areas where the zipper would have been, just a simple fold and hem job there. Then I sewed the front and back together as usual. Flipped it inside out and I was ready to go. 

Excuse the wrinkles, it's been tucked away in a box.

See how it looks like the zipper is holding it on? That's what I was going for, it's snug enough to stay put without it, and easier to take on and off. I need to make another because this one is bound to get dirty. Perhaps I can snag some more 86 cent fabric and get to work.