Creative Crib Bumper

Now that our son rolls freely in both directions, I needed a bumper for his crib so he would stop rolling into the hard sides.  

These fun lion heads are effective and entertaining.  The fabric strips around the heads used as the manes are colorful and offer different textures.  Now he has six little buddies to fall asleep with each night!
What You Need

Fabric Bundle (6 pc Dot Collection 18" x 21")

Felt (Pink, Red, Black, Blue, White)

Fabric for backing (I used old jeans)

Poly-fill stuffing

Scissors

Sewing Machine 

First I started by cutting out the pieces I would need to work with:

12 white arches for the sclera (white part of eye ball)

12 smaller blue arches for the iris (colored part of eye)

12 smaller black arches for the pupil

6 red mouths

6 pink noses

1" square strips of felt (mane)

2" rectangle strips of fabric (mane)

12 6" x 6" fabric squares for the ears

Cut out six 10" x 13" fabric squares and round the edges for the lion's face (as shown in the image).

Layer the pieces of the eyes and pin.  Pin the nose and the mouth in place and sew.  I used black thread for everything because it stands out and gave a nice outline.  The beauty of this project is that although it may be time consuming, your lines do not have to be perfect by any means and you do not have to be a master seamstress.

Here are the six faces I designed!  I got funky by adding eyebrows on some and whiskers on others so they would all have a unique and interesting look.

Making the lion's ears are the next step in the process. With each of the 6" x 6" fabric squares: fold in half, cut into an arch shape, turn inside out, sew a double seam just around the arch as shown.  Fill with some of the poly-fill stuffing and leave open.

Position and attach the ears with a pin. Make sure they are facing inwards toward the face as shown. With the 2" rectangle fabric strips, fold in half as shown to form a loop.  Alternate the fabric loops with the 1" felt square pieces to form the mane (facing inwards toward face).

 Next, lay the back piece over the top of the face and one by one take the pins out and reinsert them on top of this back piece.  Sew a double seam where you have placed the pins, leaving a 2" hole at the bottom in order to pull the face inside out and fill with stuffing. 

 After you have pulled the inside through the 2" hole you left at the bottom and filled with poly-fill stuffing, put a strip of the mane in the hole and sew closed.  Sew the ears of the lion's together as shown.  I made three lions for each bumper.

 

Lastly, use some sort of ribbon or string to attach to the back of each lion head in order to tie it to the slats of the crib. Above is shown a hand stitch attachment just in the back center, but the more security you would like, the more attachments you will want.

Here is the final product!  Two crib bumpers made up of three lion heads each with fun and funky expressions and wild manes.