puddleglum3
New member
@billyjames expressed an interest in knowing how I constructed my DIY Finnish Baby Box so I thought I would share it with all of you. It was impossible to find any info online about how to construct your own, and the ones that you can order online range from $70-$450. I'm not sure how much of a tutorial I can give you but at least I can explain what I did. PS if you try my method, don't attempt this without a sewing machine 
1) get a box - I went to The Container Store and one of their regular cardboard moving boxes was the right size at 30" long x 16.5" wide x 10" high. Ideally you want something at least 24" long, which seemed to be the size of the only Finnish online baby box that gave dimensions. Most boxes/baskets/objects I could find were only 22" long, but I guess that could work for a shorter kid, my DH is quite tall so I expect a babe on the longer side of things. I also bought two boxes, and might pick up a third, they were $2.55 each, not a huge expense and if spit up/pee/poop gets on the box, I can just recycle the old one and use another one. Also cardboard does off gas some, I bought the boxes early and will air them outside, also since they have shorter wall heights there will be more air circulation than the online Finnish boxes which have about 18" walls.
2) figure out what you want the mattress to be - I didn't want to spend too much money on this, but my main concern was that I didn't want my kid spending 12 hours a day with his/her face next to some plastic or foam thing that will off gas for months to come. The mattress also has to be pretty hard, a soft mattress would be a SIDS risk. I decided I wanted to use fabric for the base, I figure even tho it's not waterproof it will be easily washable. The main reason waterproof things are used around babies is because you CAN'T wash a regular mattress when it gets dirty. Using fabric meant that washing it would be easy so long as I was able to dry it thoroughly. I also decided to make two mattresses so that I could use the second while the first was in the washing machine, and swap as needed.
I decided to use very old towels as my mattress material, while not organic, they've been used for 10 years or more and since they were washed frequently any off gassing of new fabric is totally gone. Also they were no longer in the best of condition, a few old stains, some edges starting to fray etc. and they were free. So added bonus
3) the mattress construction - I decided that 6 layers of towels provided a good thickness for the mattress and is soft but not too soft. I didn't want to sew all 6 layers together though, they would take forever to dry after being washed, and mold is something I don't want to deal with. I decided that 2 layers of towels stitched together will dry well in a machine. I was lucky enough that some of my towels fit the dimensions of the box well if tri folded, but instead of stitching all 3 layers together I only stitched one side so that the other side opened with one layer by itself, and the other two layers connected together. For the towels that were the wrong size I had to cut them down to shape. This is messy! You HAVE to use seam biding tape along the cut edges, but don't worry that's actually pretty easy to sew on. It cost about $6 for two rolls of seam binding tape. I tried to preserve the towel selvage edges where I could so I would have to deal less with the little fluffs that fly off when you cut terry cloth. This method was a tiny bit haphazard. The perfectionist in me would have bought lovely thick organic cotton fabric, cut individual layers, done seam binding on all edges, and ended up with perfectly uniform layers for stacking. But this box is only good for 3-4 months, so I had to remind myself it was more about practicality than looks, a fitted sheet was going on top of everything anyway. Once the towel layers were all cut and edges bound, I double triple checked their fit inside the box, you want them to lay flat without leaving gaps around the edges.
4) how the mattress keeps its shape - depending on the material that you use for the mattress you need it to keep its shape so that a squirming baby won't pull up the layers and create a suffocation hazard. A fitted sheet will help with this but I thought that a rigid form under the towels would give a better structure for the fitted sheet to wrap around. Any rigid material could be cut to shape, wood would have worked or hard cardboard. I decided to use two layers of cardboard taped together. I also wanted to make this layer waterproof in the unlikely possibility that baby pee would permeate 6 layers of towels (I assume that some leaks will occur, but 6 layers would need like 1.5 cups of pee to soak the bottom layer), at least the box could retain some structural integrity. Since the rigid form is not right next to the baby's sleeping face I felt better about using plastic here. I cut two rectangles of cardboard, taped them together, and wrapped them in a kitchen trash bag and taped all the edges down so that nothing can pull up. Remember this will be under six layers of towels and a fitted sheet, so not close to baby's face. It's possible that a hard form on the bottom is unnecessary overkill, thats pretty normal for me tho
5) sheets - There are a couple ways to go here and I'm not totally sure that the fitted sheet is best, I guess it will depend on how much the baby squirms. If you notice the sheets starting to pull up, discontinue use of the box until you have a solution, suffocation would be horrible, and easy to prevent. I made fitted sheets, but am of the opinion that if they shift at all, I will switch to using a larger flat sheet, and safety pin the sheet to itself in the back to keep anything from pulling up. I also found these straps for holding down the corners of fitted sheets which can be stretched across the back to hold the fitted sheet on. I made 3 fitted sheets from an old flat sheet I had on hand. To make a fitted sheet you measure the dimensions of your box, add the height of your mattress and 3" for seam allowances. Cut squares out of the corners, sew the side seams, sew the corner seams, and sew elastic into each corner. There are pretty good youtube tutorials for this, but I can't find the ones I used right now. Here is about what I did.
Anyway thats the process that I used. The whole thing cost me $11.50 for the boxes and seam bindings, since I was able to use old towels for the mattress, an old sheet for the fitted sheets, and old sewing supplies for everything else. Buying everything new would be more expensive, but still probably cheaper than buying a box online.
My Box! The edges are a little wonky, but I'm going to clean them up and maybe decorate them a little later. Who knows, its also kinda awesome how simple it is now.
1) get a box - I went to The Container Store and one of their regular cardboard moving boxes was the right size at 30" long x 16.5" wide x 10" high. Ideally you want something at least 24" long, which seemed to be the size of the only Finnish online baby box that gave dimensions. Most boxes/baskets/objects I could find were only 22" long, but I guess that could work for a shorter kid, my DH is quite tall so I expect a babe on the longer side of things. I also bought two boxes, and might pick up a third, they were $2.55 each, not a huge expense and if spit up/pee/poop gets on the box, I can just recycle the old one and use another one. Also cardboard does off gas some, I bought the boxes early and will air them outside, also since they have shorter wall heights there will be more air circulation than the online Finnish boxes which have about 18" walls.
2) figure out what you want the mattress to be - I didn't want to spend too much money on this, but my main concern was that I didn't want my kid spending 12 hours a day with his/her face next to some plastic or foam thing that will off gas for months to come. The mattress also has to be pretty hard, a soft mattress would be a SIDS risk. I decided I wanted to use fabric for the base, I figure even tho it's not waterproof it will be easily washable. The main reason waterproof things are used around babies is because you CAN'T wash a regular mattress when it gets dirty. Using fabric meant that washing it would be easy so long as I was able to dry it thoroughly. I also decided to make two mattresses so that I could use the second while the first was in the washing machine, and swap as needed.
I decided to use very old towels as my mattress material, while not organic, they've been used for 10 years or more and since they were washed frequently any off gassing of new fabric is totally gone. Also they were no longer in the best of condition, a few old stains, some edges starting to fray etc. and they were free. So added bonus
3) the mattress construction - I decided that 6 layers of towels provided a good thickness for the mattress and is soft but not too soft. I didn't want to sew all 6 layers together though, they would take forever to dry after being washed, and mold is something I don't want to deal with. I decided that 2 layers of towels stitched together will dry well in a machine. I was lucky enough that some of my towels fit the dimensions of the box well if tri folded, but instead of stitching all 3 layers together I only stitched one side so that the other side opened with one layer by itself, and the other two layers connected together. For the towels that were the wrong size I had to cut them down to shape. This is messy! You HAVE to use seam biding tape along the cut edges, but don't worry that's actually pretty easy to sew on. It cost about $6 for two rolls of seam binding tape. I tried to preserve the towel selvage edges where I could so I would have to deal less with the little fluffs that fly off when you cut terry cloth. This method was a tiny bit haphazard. The perfectionist in me would have bought lovely thick organic cotton fabric, cut individual layers, done seam binding on all edges, and ended up with perfectly uniform layers for stacking. But this box is only good for 3-4 months, so I had to remind myself it was more about practicality than looks, a fitted sheet was going on top of everything anyway. Once the towel layers were all cut and edges bound, I double triple checked their fit inside the box, you want them to lay flat without leaving gaps around the edges.
4) how the mattress keeps its shape - depending on the material that you use for the mattress you need it to keep its shape so that a squirming baby won't pull up the layers and create a suffocation hazard. A fitted sheet will help with this but I thought that a rigid form under the towels would give a better structure for the fitted sheet to wrap around. Any rigid material could be cut to shape, wood would have worked or hard cardboard. I decided to use two layers of cardboard taped together. I also wanted to make this layer waterproof in the unlikely possibility that baby pee would permeate 6 layers of towels (I assume that some leaks will occur, but 6 layers would need like 1.5 cups of pee to soak the bottom layer), at least the box could retain some structural integrity. Since the rigid form is not right next to the baby's sleeping face I felt better about using plastic here. I cut two rectangles of cardboard, taped them together, and wrapped them in a kitchen trash bag and taped all the edges down so that nothing can pull up. Remember this will be under six layers of towels and a fitted sheet, so not close to baby's face. It's possible that a hard form on the bottom is unnecessary overkill, thats pretty normal for me tho
5) sheets - There are a couple ways to go here and I'm not totally sure that the fitted sheet is best, I guess it will depend on how much the baby squirms. If you notice the sheets starting to pull up, discontinue use of the box until you have a solution, suffocation would be horrible, and easy to prevent. I made fitted sheets, but am of the opinion that if they shift at all, I will switch to using a larger flat sheet, and safety pin the sheet to itself in the back to keep anything from pulling up. I also found these straps for holding down the corners of fitted sheets which can be stretched across the back to hold the fitted sheet on. I made 3 fitted sheets from an old flat sheet I had on hand. To make a fitted sheet you measure the dimensions of your box, add the height of your mattress and 3" for seam allowances. Cut squares out of the corners, sew the side seams, sew the corner seams, and sew elastic into each corner. There are pretty good youtube tutorials for this, but I can't find the ones I used right now. Here is about what I did.
Anyway thats the process that I used. The whole thing cost me $11.50 for the boxes and seam bindings, since I was able to use old towels for the mattress, an old sheet for the fitted sheets, and old sewing supplies for everything else. Buying everything new would be more expensive, but still probably cheaper than buying a box online.
My Box! The edges are a little wonky, but I'm going to clean them up and maybe decorate them a little later. Who knows, its also kinda awesome how simple it is now.