Saturday, September 25, 2010

Finally! The Bumfuzzle Crib is finished and on its way

I mentioned earlier that I was sewing a crib for the Bumfuzzles. Everything had been going along swimmingly until I ran into 'grommet trouble', and then things came to a grinding halt.

West Marine said it would take two weeks to get 72 grommets to me, and the Bumfuzzles and I agreed that this was just too long to wait.

In the end, two weeks was nothing compared to what we ended up going through!

The online company we dealt with assured us they had plenty of grommets in stock and would send them immediately.

A week later I received 6 grommets. Total. I needed 72.

Oops! Online company apologized for their mistake and said replacements were on their way. Right now.

A week later I called them and they promised to get back to me.

They didn't.

I called again and the service rep said the warehouse wasn't getting back to her with an answer.

Well guess what! I've literally worked with this 'warehouse mentality' in the past and they can kiss my a**! In a very polite tone (after all, it's not this chick's fault that the warehouse people are idiots!), I told her that this was unacceptable, and that the grommets had better be shipped to me, OVERNIGHT, at no additional charge. I also made some other vague threats about the rotten exposure they would get via the Internet if they didn't oblige.

The grommets arrived the next day!




A butt load of grommets!










Here is the long side of the crib with the privacy/warmth flap in the down position.

And let me mention right now that the 'cutting tool' that comes with these grommets is a joke! I doubt it could cut a hole in a piece of wet toilet paper. Luckily I had an 'awl like' tool that I got a long time ago for the purses that I make, and it did indeed punch through the canvas, but each and every hole had to be enlarged, by hand, with slightly dull scissors!!

My hands still hurt!






This is where one long side abuts the foot of the crib.













Here the flap is rolled up and held in place by straps that button at the top.

The middle is a mesh insert for ventilation

(once again, the X is my ironing board support, so just ignore it!).

I desperately hope this crib works for them and if it does, I'll let you know! If it doesn't, I may disappear from the blogosphere!




While I was waiting for the grommet shipment, I stumbled upon this pirate fabric and it called out to me.

So I made Ouest (the Bumfuzzle Baby) a little dress. Since I'm pretty sure her parents' don't read my blog I feel safe in posting this picture.
Oh how I miss sewing for my girls!! They are now 22 and 23 and somehow I don't think this would appeal to them at this time in their life.

I just don't understand why!




9 comments:

  1. Good Morning,
    I couldn't resist taking a look at your site. I can't wait until I have more time to read. I am heading out back to Beaumont to supervise the kitchen redo. I read you were having trouble finding charts for the Bahamas. We used the Explore Charts and we were very happy with them. I love using a free computer program called "Sea Clear". They were extremely accurate in the States. The ones we have for the Bahamas are not as detailed but we think there are some more detailed charts out there, we just haven't taken the time to find them. As much as I love Sea Clear, we ALWAYs have paper charts ready. We also found a Garmin GPS 478 invaluable. Rusty probably used that more than the Raymarine Chart plotter and radar. Most of the time he had both going but he set his route on the hand held GPS. It was great. It monitored your progress and told you when you would arrive and would adjust depending on speed. I may be giving you information you already know or don't want, so I apologize if that is the case. Rusty had a pretty slick navigational system going with a lot of redundancy. I think that and good weather information (Chris Parker is the man) is why our trip went so well.
    Sea Yawl Later!!
    Linda

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  2. Thanks Linda, We do have a nice chartplotter that came with the boat and we had our radar repaired this summer. I'm going to check into those charts because there's no way we want to sail without them!

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  3. Thank you Shauna!! I only hope it works!

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  4. Looks nice Laura! I'm sure Pat & Ali will be very appreciative to have it, based on the latest contraption they have for Ouest :)

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  5. Bill, I saw Ouest's cage, and I had to laugh when they compared it to putting a kid on a leash. Well, I was one of those parents. My middle daughter was a hellion and couldn't be trusted to not take off! I also had an infant in a front carrier and a 5 year old to keep an eye on, so a leash helped me to keep my sanity!

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  6. Great job! I'm sure we'll be seeing your crib and dress creation all over the web soon! =)

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  7. Cheryl, I think they should just keep using the cage!

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  8. LOL! I'd say it is now time to "retire" the cage.

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