Roman’s cot has teething rails…along the sides only! It didn’t take him long to figure this out, so he chews on the ends. I made up some teething rail guards so he can chew on those instead.
They are simply some rectangles with straps on the sides that snap onto the back to hold the guards in place.
I made them out of a cute cotton print, also used on the sleeping bag, and used an old towel for the backing.
To make these up:
Measure the width of the cot inside the side rails to get the width for your fabric. Measure the length you want. At the same time, measure the length of straps you will need. As you can see in the bottom picture, I made mine a fair bit longer than needed.
Cut out 2 rectangles of main fabric and 2 of your backing fabric using your measurements, plus a seam allowance. Cut out 4 strap pieces, using your measured length, plus about 3cm extra and twice the width of the strap you want.
To make up the straps, fold the fabric right sides facing and long edges together and sew around the edge, leaving one short end open. Clip the seam allowance at the corner and turn the strap right side out. Repeat for remaining straps.
To make up the guards, take a rectangle of main fabric and a rectangle of backing fabric and place right sides together. Sandwich the straps in the middle with the open ends of the straps sticking out. Sew all the way around the edge, leaving an opening to turn your work. Clip the corners and turn right way out. Press
Top-stitch all the way around the edge. This will close the opening you had for turning.
Attach one side of your snaps to the main part of the guard and then put the guard over the cot. Mark where to put the other half of the snap on the strap and then attach the snap. Repeat for remaining snaps. You want to have the snaps on the outside of the cot so that your cheeky little one doesn’t make a game of un-doing them.
To make guards for the sides of your cot too, just leave off the straps, and put snaps along the length snapping between the bars.
kamsnaps.com says
Great idea! Thank you for sharing! Judy @ KAMsnaps.com
Jamie Gupton says
I wish I had seen this years ago!! Maybe I can spare my daughter’s bed the damage that my son did to his. Pin’d! Thank you!
Anonymous says
My 10 month old has just started nibbling the ends of his cot, so this is absolutely perfect! Thanks so much, i’ll be attempting to make these soon!
Edina says
Thanks for the idea! I tried it today, just out of a fleece blanket, folded in half. But made the mistake of leaving the material too long, thinking that it won’t be an issue if it covered over the sides a bit too…. I was wrong. 🙁 (I made knots instead of poppers, and) the ties became too lose, even when I made them tightest. So the fleece can be folded up now, revealing the wood. Will see if my daughter realises it!… 🙂
Now I will probably cut the whole thing in half to reattach them in the correct cot size, and as I haven’t sewn the end up, I can just use the material as a two-pocket organiser later!… “Such fun!”:)
abby says
That’s a great ‘no sew’ solution!