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Twin Tuesday: DIY Fabric Gate

Hello! Before reading this post, please know that Designing Dawn is making no claims as to the safety level of this gate. I’m not a children’s product manufacturer, just a mom, and THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE A SAFETY GATE, nor does it provide the level of safety and years of testing baby products go through to protect your children. This is simply what I created for my own use because we couldn’t find a ready made option that would fit our stairs, and even though we only have a couple small steps, I did not want an open staircase. It provides a visible barrier that keeps my son from attempting to crawl down the stairs while he is still too young to teach stair safety too, however I acknowledge that there is a possibility that older children could get around this gate and fall. Please use your own judgement as to the level of safety and baby-proofing you feel you need in your home and for your children, and always watch your children when they are playing around any stairs.

Now on to the tutorial!

Hello! Dania here. It’s been a while since I’ve dropped in here on my sister’s blog, but I’m hoping to make more regular appearances in the future, now that I’ve settled into the role of mom. (You can see all my Twin Tuesday posts by clicking here, in case you’re curious.)

Speaking of being a mom now, my post today is about how I made my own DIY fabric gate. Now that my offspring, Barrett, is a one-year-old on the move, we had to do a little baby proofing around the house. The problem was, we couldn’t use a standard store-bought baby gate because the stair rail post to our basement stairs doesn’t line up with the wall correctly. It’s just off enough that the gate wouldn’t hold. After ordering and sending back several options, I decided to get creative, and here’s what I came up with.

DIY Fabric Gate from DesigningDawn.com-2

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about how I made this gate, so I thought I’d go ahead and create a little tutorial right here for ya’ll. :) I didn’t think to take progress photos along the way, so hopefully I can make this as clear as possible.

Again, this is not intended as a safety gate. It would work great to corral a pet, or to keep kids out of an off limits area or room, or perhaps at the bottom of the stairs. Despite this photo at the top of the stairs, I really want to emphasize that we use this strictly as a visible barrier to discourage him from wandering, not as a safety device. We have a very small, (4 step) carpeted staircase. I do not recommend this for a large or dangerous staircase, as obviously a child could get around the gate if they were determined enough. A certified safety product is always best. Please don’t sacrifice safety for looks, and please always supervise your children around stairs!!

First, I measured the area and bought fun but heavy fabric. Most of my house is neutral tans, grays, and whites. However I wanted something bright and fun for this non-permanent piece. When buying my fabric, I made sure to doubled the length so my gate would have both a front and back with the pattern facing out. I also bought cording to use for corners, but you could probably substitute this with heavy ribbon for a different look.

To create the gate, I laid the fabric flat and folded in all four sides of fabric to hide the edges. I pinned them to make sure they were straight, then I hot glued them down creating nice clean edges for the sides of the gate.

Next, I folded the rectangle of fabric in half and hot glued all the outer edges to each other. At this point, you should have a square of fabric. When gluing your edges, make sure to leave a small area at each corner unglued so you have space to add cording.

After the fabric was set, I added cording to the sides of the gate, again using hot glue. Running the cord down the sides was purely decorative, so I didn’t need to sew the cording onto the whole thing. To securely fasten it and create enough strength to hold the gate in place, I looped cording at corners and hot glued the ends of the edges into the open corners, right inside the seams. After hot gluing the corner loops in place, I reinforced the cording by sewing the corners. This extra step makes sure that the gate stays in place if there’s pressure on it, so the cords are held in place by more than just glue in the essential areas. ;)

DIY Fabric Gate from DesigningDawn.com
It’s as simple as that! A pretty little stair gate that is a custom fit for our space. To attach the gate to the wall, I used Command Cord Bundlers that you can pick up at nearly any retailer. Just look in the electronic supply section.

DIY Fabric Gate from DesigningDawn.com-3

Here’s the finished product in action. Works like a charm! A nice plus is our cat, Dwight, can slip under or around the sides of the gate to get to his box in the basement. He enjoys teasing the kid from the safety of the other side of the gate.

DIY Fabric Gate from DesigningDawn.com-6

And as a bonus, I even had enough fabric left over to make a matching pillow for the living room!

DIY Fabric Gate from DesigningDawn.com-5

I hope you like my little DIY project. Look for more of me here in the future, and if you’d like, come follow me on Instagram!

-Dania

 

P.S.~ This post contains affiliate links.

 

Dear June: 12 Month Old Baby (Happy Birthday Baby Girl!)

June 12 MonthsDear June,

Yesterday was your first birthday. I’m not sure where to even begin. It was a normal day in most ways, but I felt like it was huge. You were just as happy as ever. We played music for you (your favorite thing ever), and took a family walk to get some ice cream (you loved it!). We’ll celebrate your birthday this weekend with a small family party, and I’m currently trying to get the house ready and very much looking forward to seeing you dive into your cake.

Vera told me that you look bigger now that you’re one. So apparently she sees something I don’t. You look exactly the same to me. :)

This past month, you have really gotten into table food. You eat it for every meal now, and although I’m officially done pumping, we still have two nursing sessions a day: before bed and first thing in the morning. I doubt they will last much longer though. You much prefer real food to bottles and seem to be using nursing more for comfort than nutrition. Although it makes me sad in a way, I think we’re both ready to move on, and I’m proud of myself for continuing to nurse for your whole first year. There were times when I was so over it, it wasn’t funny. Not knowing if this will be the last time I’ll ever nurse a baby though… that makes it more special and a little heartbreaking.

You love music more than almost anyone I know, and immediately start dancing no matter the song. If you’re upset, music calms you, and if you’re happy, music excites you. You wave your little arms and bounce up and down, and sway from left to right, and wiggle your legs and butt. It’s adorable.

You’ve developed a pretty strong stranger anxiety over the past month or two, and for some reason more-so with men than women. You cry at daycare when dads pick up their kids, and you would barely look at your uncle Cody the last time he came to visit. You don’t like anyone besides me and your dad to hold you, even though Vera tries all the time. I wish it wasn’t so darn endearing. I know I have to discourage your clingyness, but I also know I’ll always miss the days when you just wanted your mom to hold you.

You have been having some sleep regression lately, and I think it’s because your molars are starting to come in. I haven’t seen them yet, but your gums are swollen and red and your doctor said they’ll be here soon. Even still, you’re only up once a night if at all, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

You aren’t walking yet, but cruise around furniture and crawl like lightning. Your favorite game is pulling things out of baskets one by one. Whether it’s clothes, or shoes or toys. I have a small basket of toys just for this purpose and it’s quite effective at entertaining you for a good 10 minutes if I need to get something done.

Maybe the funniest quirk you have, and something I don’t want to forget, is that you have a strange obsession with narrow tubular objects. Pens, markers, spoons, toy wands, and your favorite, straws. Even a comb will work in a pinch. Anything you can grab and carry around makes you extremely happy and you’ll hold onto it for hours. If you see a straw you go crazy trying to get ahold of it. I’ve even gone so far as to request extra straws at restaurants or Starbucks just so you have something to cling to. Someday we’ll laugh about this.

You’re still the most content baby I know. A good example of your nature happened just this morning at your one year doctor’s checkup. They had to prick your finger for a blood test, and as expected you cried when it happened. You didn’t bleed very much though and about 30 seconds later, while the nurse was still trying to get enough blood for the test, you had stopped crying completely and just sat watching her squeeze your finger until she had what she needed… which took about  3-5 minutes. In the same visit, when the doctor asked me how we handle your tantrums, I was kind of caught off guard… because you don’t have tantrums. Really ever. You cry when you’re hungry or scared of a stranger or want to be picked up. Or when Vera does whatever big sisters do (pinches your cheeks, takes away your straw, tries to pick you up). And that’s pretty much it.

Well, that’s my one year old girl in a nutshell. You have no idea how special you are to us, and you have made the past year so unbelievably awesome. We all love you so much, baby girl!

Love, Mom

 

June 12 Months 2

 

 

Mr. Steve & Hooper

Remember how back in June I got to attend the Omaha filming of the Antiques Roadshow, thanks to Nebraska’s PBS station, NET? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I got to attend another NET event, and this time I got to bring the girls along with me!

If you’re a PBS watcher who has kids, you’re probably familiar with the names Mr. Steve and Hooper. Well we got to meet them at the Joslyn Art Museum two weekends ago, where Mr. Steve put on a concert for the kids, and Hooper was on hand for photo ops. It was so much fun! The girls loved it, and Vera even got to go up on stage to dance!

Mr. Steve PBS NET

Photo from netNebraska.org

The show was at 10:30 and was free to attend, but you had to register in advance to make sure there was room. I told my sister about it, and she got to bring her son, Barrett, along to see the show too. The kids had a lot of fun. Here are my girls getting pretty excited before the show! Well, at least one of them was excited. Haha.

Designing Dawn - Mr. Steve comes to Omaha

Our day started at 9:30 when we got to the Joslyn and were ushered to our seats in the front row. We got to see them setting up for the show, and meet Mr. Steve while he was doing his sound check. It was really neat for Vera to get to see him up close and talk to him a little bit before the museum was open to the public.

Designing Dawn - Mr. Steve comes to Omaha-2

Designing Dawn - Mr. Steve comes to Omaha-3

Despite not looking quite as thrilled as Vera in the photo above, June got into the action as soon as the music started.

After the show, Mr. Steve and Hooper were there to meet all the kids and take photos. Vera was thrilled!

Designing Dawn - Mr. Steve comes to Omaha-4

Then, of course, we stuck around for a bit to play at the museum. I have a degree in fine art, so it’s probably no surprise that the Joslyn Art Museum is one of my favorite places in Omaha, and I wasn’t passing up the chance to spend some time. :)

DesigningDawn.com - Mr. Steve comes to Omaha

Overall, we had a really fun time and I have to thank NET again for giving us the chance to go to the show, and the Joslyn for hosting the event! It was certainly a day Vera won’t forget. :)

*dawn sig