New Mattress Pad

I've never really been a 'list' person. But last week I had a lot of stuff I wanted to get done--cleaning, organizing, baking, etc--so I made myself a list for the week and I was able to do and cross off almost everything! It was actually helpful to have it written down so I wouldn't forget anything. And then there are the mental 'to do' lists, the things that you know you have to do but you don't bother to write down because they're always there, just waiting until you have the time. Parker's mattress pad is one of those things.
Parker doesn't sleep well away from home. At least, that's what we thought the problem was. Until one day, on our last vacation, we were talking about how we could help him. After checking out his pack 'n play, we realized that the "mattress" in the bottom is really hard. It feels like a light layer of batting on top of a board. Poor kid, no wonder he kept waking up! I wouldn't want to sleep on that, either! So that night we folded up a couple baby quilts on top of the mattress and then put the sheet back on, and he slept so much better! We decided that once we got home we would need find some kind of padding for his pack 'n play so the next time we traveled he would be able to sleep. I couldn't find one to buy, and I wasn't really sure how to make one that would be thick enough. So I decided to put it on hold for a while. But a few weeks ago Kyle and I got a new mattress and the problem was solved--I could use the mattress pad from our old bed and cut it down to make a pad for Parker's bed (Although after we figured that out, it sat folded up in our bedroom until now)!

But I didn't have anything planned for today so once Parker had been fed and was happily playing, I pulled out our queen-sized mattress pad.
I had measured Parker's little mattress earlier, so I got out a measuring tape and a sharpie and started marking.

And cutting.

I cut the smaller one out from the corner of the original pad--that way I'd only have to sew two seams rather than all four. And I decided to rip off the binding so I could re-use it around the smaller mat and keep the same look. It came off pretty easy once the first few stitches were out.

Since the corners of the original one were rounded, I traced around a cereal bowl to round the corners of the one I was making as well. Once I had the right size and shape, I sewed a zigzag stitch around the raw edges. I figured it would be easier to put the binding on if the edges were already secured and flat. And finally, I added the binding.

I didn't do the binding the proper way of sewing one side on first. I just held it in place on both sides and started sewing....SO I had to go back and touch up a few places where the stitches didn't catch on the back. :)

Not my prettiest sewing job, but it was quick and it worked! And once it's in the pack 'n play and covered with a sheet, nobody's going to see it anyway. :)