How to Make a Convertible Crib Rail Cover

Convertible crib rail covers can help protect your baby from injury and the crib from damage caused by tiny teeth. They're easy to make and significantly cheaper than buying from a store. With the instructions provided here, you can make your own convertible crib rail cover that perfectly matches your nursery, fits your crib, and requires only minimal sewing skills.

Things You'll Need

• 2 yards of fabric
• 2 yards of thick quilt batting
• Sewing machine or needle and thread
• Measuring tape
• Scissors
• Straight pins
• Ribbon

Instructions

Basic Rail Cover

1. Measure the length of your crib rail. (Most standard crib rail covers---and the measurements used here---are 51 inches.)

2. Cut your fabric into two rectangles measuring 51 inches long by 16 inches wide.

3. Cut your quilt batting into one rectangle 51 inches long by eight inches wide.

4. Lay the quilt batting onto the wrong side of one of your fabric pieces and place the other fabric piece on top of it, with all of the wrong sides together.

5. Fold over the short edges of the fabric to create hems and pin them together, still folded.

6. Sew both short edges of the rail cover so you have what looks like a really long pillow (with the long sides still open).

Adding Ties & Finishing

1. Cut your ribbon into eight 5-inch pieces.

2. Fold the long edges of the fabric under to form hems, the same way you did the short edges.

3. At each of the four corners, and at two places midway down the length of the cover, pin ribbons into the hems you created so that the length of the ribbon sticks out. (It should go fabric-ribbon-fabric.)

4. Sew the long-edge hems together with the ribbons in between.

5. Your rail cover is complete. Simply lay it over the convertible crib rail, and tie the sides together with the ribbons.