DIY folding bassinet

bubs will be here soon. we originally thought it would be a good idea for her to sleep in her own room, but after re-evaluating the impending 2/3 hourly feed situation, we had to rethink - probably it would be wiser to have her next to our bed...
we did buy one of these:

originally to put in a cot, so bubs could be snug and centred and not roll around the cot...
we never thought we would acutally use it as a co-sleeper - as my heavily snoring self might squash bubs unintentionally
then we got lots of useful stuff from Belle and family... including a folding change table... Thanks Belle!

"What if i could refashion it into a bassinet (like the boori one (just like the one below) in the shops) plus a change table, and it would be foldable (for easy manouvering and storage) too! We would be able to have bubs in our room, in the lounge room, anywhere in the house, no problems!"


trying out the co-sleeper on the folding change table...

so i firstly had to remove the old fabric...

then i had to cut out the new fabric...
yep... good value ikea...


so here's the result... (after refashioning the folding change table into bubs' easy clean easy fold bassinet/change table)
it started off with just the bassinet (cloth box)... then i added the side pockets for storage... bottom rack for even more storage and then the "change table cloth"...
here... pooh is pretending to be bubs... sleeping... the co-sleeper fits snugly...
if we didn't have the co-sleeper, we could then get a piece of foam cut out at clark rubber or something...
and the "change table cloth" with detachable clear vinyl top layer for easy cleaning...
in fact all new cloth components - bassinet, change table, side pockets, bottom rack etc can all be detached for a clean in the washing machine - cos everything is secured with velcro / extra wide heavy duty velcro...
side pockets to put all the creams, wipes etc etc... and the bottom rack to put extra clean nappies
a nappy changing pooh...
pooh back to sleep...

best of all... it can be folded away and stored... folded and transported... and after its life as a bassinet... it'll still be useful as a change table / storage for bubs...

DIY breastfeeding cloth breast pads

i haven't been making much the last 6 months... now bubs is getting bigger and ready to come out in a couple of months, i'm back onto making my crafty bits...
for the last months, i have accummulated diff types of fabric to make "bubs'stuff"... one of the "stuff" i will really need would be reusable breast pads to soak up any leakages...
material used: flannelette cotton (off cuts from bed sheet), jersey cotton (off cuts from resizing t shirts), skin colour stretch jersey (off cuts from nude slip), PEVA polyethylene vinyl acetate (waterproof layer from shower curtain)
what to do? cut circles, cut out 40 degrees, sew cone shape, stack diff layers (from outside nude layer, then PEVA waterproof layer, then absorbant jersey / flannelette layer, to inner soft flannelette layer) & sew together in zigzag stitch--> final result = cone shaped / contoured breast pads
circle had to be about 10-12 cm in diametre... i used my packing tape as a mould, traced and cut out on fabric...

much cheaper to use PEVA as waterproof layer rather than PUL polyurethanelaminate

sew 40 degrees and then cut off. do this for each layer individually
use protractor to draw on 40 degrees first --> smaller breast, greater degrees; larger breast, smaller angle...
cut off after sewing... will become contoured cone...




stack diff layers and then sew together at the circular edge with zig zag stitch
trim excess fabric on the edges