Bedding Solutions-Share Yours

[Gilda]

Hi Everyone,
As you may know, as the Gleeful Glamper, I have great interest in making my trailer attractive AND comfortable AND functional. I think we can all agree that a good night's sleep is essential to a joyful camping experience. Most of us "tweek" the standard "beds" that come with our trailers to suit our comfort requirements. I have posted many photos explaining my bedding solution which requires some customized sewing. Because I'm a skilled sewer this is relatively easy for me but I understand not everyone has this skill.

Today I found a website that offers customized bedding for the RV and home and I thought you might like to know of it. I have NO affiliation nor experience with this company. The photo below is called the "Zipper Bed". They can be found at https://www.bunkbedsbunker.com/produ...edding-bunkie/



I'm always looking for attractive, comfortable and functional bedding solutions and encourage you to post photos here, even if you have previously posted so that we can all learn to make our bedding better.

[Gilda]

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[Bobbie Mayer]

This seems like more work. If you put a sleeping bag on top of a fitted sheet you would only have to occasionally wash the sleeping bag. This thing you have to remove in total to wash and then fit back onto the mattress. I don't get it. Am I missing something? It would make sense if just the sheet lining and top came off to wash but not the whole thing.

[EllPea in CA]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

This seems like more work. If you put a sleeping bag on top of a fitted sheet you would only have to occasionally wash the sleeping bag. This thing you have to remove in total to wash and then fit back onto the mattress. I don't get it. Am I missing something? It would make sense if just the sheet lining and top came off to wash but not the whole thing.

Well, it seems to be something you leave in place all day, but that looks less like a bed and more like seating. At bedtime you don't have to make the bed, you just unzip it. True, laundry looks more complicated. Just depends on when and where we want to expend our bed-making energy!

[Bobbie Mayer]

Originally Posted by Ellpea in CA

Well, it seems to be something you leave in place all day, but that looks less like a bed and more like seating. At bedtime you don't have to make the bed, you just unzip it. True, laundry looks more complicated. Just depends on when and where we want to expend our bed-making energy!

That makes sense, I guess.

[Kai in Seattle]

Using lightweight, washable, all cotton upholstery fabric, I made fitted covers for our mattresses and dining seats. These stay on full time, and are tight enough to appear like some kind of upholstery. I used a black and white plaid much like the original scamp fabric. THEN, I made long duffels/bolsters out of a contrasting fleece with a drawstring close at one end, into which we put double/queen sized "fuzzy blankets," the kind that are warm enough by themselves, and are washable. Paul's is a double one (two fuzzy layers joined at the hems). At night, we open the duffels and lay the blankets sideways on our respective "twin" beds. We get between the upper and lower halves, warm top and bottom. That's it. In the AM we roll them back up and put them back into the duffel/bolsters, which I set along the wall-side edges of our now "twin" daybeds. It's about as simple as we could get it. When anything gets soiled, we wash it when we get home, including the bolster/duffel covers. We use matching/blending pillowcases and zippered pillow covers which we also use to create daybed-style sitting areas front and back.


I never liked sleeping bags much--I feel a bit trapped when they're zipped, plus the darn zippers are either rough, cold, or irritating. The folded-over blankets have no zippers. We sleep under the same kind at home.


If it is very hot, we would bring cooler flat sheets instead, or just toss the blankets open.


So far Paul has refused to leave the blankets out even when no one was going to look inside and we were leaving right after breakfast. He says it's about as easy to put it away as to leave it out and he likes the bolster look well enough to be worth the small effort to put the blankets away even if we'll open things up for washing when we get home.

[LiseKen]

Kai can u post a photo of ur duffel contraption as a bolster and also when ready to sleep in. I can't picture it but sounds like a great solution.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Bobbie Mayer]

Kai, how did you do the fitting for the covers? Elastic, box corners?

[emij]

These are our beds, made up for sleeping. We like to leave them made up during the day. It isn't super convenient to put it all away, should we need the table, but everything on the big bed fits under the driver's side bench and the bunk stuff all fits under the sofa. I keep rethinking how to do things, and sometimes we just pull out the sleeping bags instead of the blankets and sheets, but this works for us!

[Kai in Seattle]

As a result of my computer going to the computer hospital three times in the last month, I'm currently unable to upload any new photos.


Picture, if you will, a tube of fabric about ten inches longer than your rolled-up blanket.


To one end of the tube, stitch in a fabric circle, making a kind of "elephant's foot" end. On the other end, fold over the fabric to make a casing. Thread something sturdy through it for a drawstring.


You slip your rolled-up blanket into the tube, and pull the drawstring tight and tie it with a bow--and tuck the bow inside the tube. Voila.


Stuffed tube with bedding blanket inside, makes a nice bolster.


I'll work on getting a better photo program.


Kai

[Kai in Seattle]

Another way to think about it--picture a rolled-up sleeping bag in a storage bag. Now picture the storage bag twice as long and half as fat. Making not a fat pillow shape but a longer bolster shape. Drawstring close at one end. Like that.


Kai

[LiseKen]

Thanks Kai, now I got it. For some reason that last explanation is the one that took! Appreciate you taking the time to reword it. Sometime (maybe at the first SAG?) I will see it in person!

Lise

[Gilda]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

This seems like more work. If you put a sleeping bag on top of a fitted sheet you would only have to occasionally wash the sleeping bag. This thing you have to remove in total to wash and then fit back onto the mattress. I don't get it. Am I missing something? It would make sense if just the sheet lining and top came off to wash but not the whole thing.

Also, sleeping bags tend to wrap around your body, leaving you and the bag all knotted up. With this solution the bag stays put.

[Bobbie Mayer]

No, I mean the fitted bed cover, not the bolster. How did you fit the corners? I have trouble getting a cover to stay on.

[Kai in Seattle]

Thanks Kai, now I got it. For some reason that last explanation is the one that took! Appreciate you taking the time to reword it. Sometime (maybe at the first SAG?) I will see it in person!

Lise __________________
Lise in WA


Most welcome, and looking forward to meeting you! First SAG, yes. Seattle Area Gathering. Better than WAUW.


A picture is worth a thousand words...but the right words don't hurt.


BEST
Kai

[Kai in Seattle]

Today I found a website that offers customized bedding for the RV and home and I thought you might like to know of it. I have NO affiliation nor experience with this company. The photo below is called the "Zipper Bed". They can be found at https://www.bunkbedsbunker.com/produ...edding-bunkie/



Gilda,




Hi, Gilda, you found a really good-looking item. What a lot of print options in a wide range of colorways! Standard twin or double sizes only. 100% soft polyester. $199.99 with free shipping.


Is that yours in the top photo?

[Kai in Seattle]

"No, I mean the fitted bed cover, not the bolster. How did you fit the corners? I have trouble getting a cover to stay on." Bobbie Mayer




Ahh! OK. Yes, box corners, just like a fitted sheet. BUT you want the casing/hem edge to hang quite a bit longer than the edge of the mattress so that when you make the casing to run your elastic through, there is significant material UNDER the mattress. Then you pull your 1/4" - 1/2" elastic so tight that you can just barely get the cover off.


Fit well, fit once. Measure twice, cut once. Me--I end up measuring about six times.


As you sit and sleep on it, it'll likely stretch out a bit, but you can easily hand-smooth and re-tuck it for the open houses.


I use the relatively-heavy 100% cotton fabric from Walmart on bolts for about $6.98 a yard. It takes about 3 yards, as I remember. I bought the whole darn bolt and used it all--and bought another one and used all of that, too. Preshrunk and pre-dried it, ironed it before cutting, and "flat-felled" the seams so it's reversible. I chose a busy plaid pattern so it looks cleaner no matter what.


Sorry about the confusion.


BEST
Kai

[Bobbie Mayer]

So did you run elastic all the way around or just at the corners? I'll have to do some calculations and try it on the day bed at home first (window seat). Still thinking about it for the trailer- neither one is easy for tucking corners in. What I'd almost like to do for the permanent bed in the trailer is make bumpers (like giant crib bumpers) so that everything stays on the bed and doesn't fall back behind it. But not sure how I'd do that.

(No big storm this weekend so I missed my inaugural night in the new trailer- I figured when the power went out and the house got cold I'd move out there.)

[Kai in Seattle]

Hi, Bobbie,


All the way around. I wanted it to stay put and stay as tight as possible, since I'm pretending it is upholstered (with washing privileges). Took most of a package of elastic.


We managed to get our mattresses cut fairly tight; though I lost a bookmark down the back wall one night. Paul had to move the mattress to get at it.


I agree, a trial first does help later.


Interested in what you do and how it works out.




Oh, yes, we had battened down the hatches here for the big storm...I think three leaves were blown from one tree. As a disaster, it disappointed. 8) =-D


We, too, are considering Peanut to be our emergency shelter.


Should probably stock it a bit more just in case.

[Bobbie Mayer]

Thanks. I have a window seat with a twin mattress which is my favorite seat in the house, but the dogs are always getting the cover knocked off (digging for a bed for example) and what I did (box corners in back and elastic) does not do the job. It helps to have a flannel fitted sheet under the cover as it doesn't slip as easily but I'd like something that stayed in place better. It's looser than a trailer mattress so easier to make, though. And whatever I do to make this work I could do the same in the trailer.

Trailer as emergency shelter/cache would be an interesting topic.