by Jessi Wohlwend
Babies can be really light sleepers, and the worst thing in the world for new parents who just got their baby to go to sleep, is to have them wake back up as soon as the nursery door closes! Luckily, door latch covers are super easy to make, and they allow you to close the nursery door without waking your baby!
Yep, there’s a little dinosaur on that door latch cover! Just slip the elastics over each doorknob and the door will shut silently! And it’s thin enough that the door does still shut, the latch just won’t click. These are also great for when the kid is a little older, to prevent them from pushing a door shut and locking themselves in a room if they’re still too small to turn the doorknob!
DIY Nursery Door Latch Cover
These only take a few minutes to put together, and only require a few materials:
- fun printed cotton
- 2 hair elastics
- sewing machine and basic supplies (scissors, pins, thread, etc.)
Start by cutting two 3″ x 4″ rectangles out of your cotton fabric. (I made two latch covers, so I cut four rectangles.)
Set one rectangle on your table, printed side up. Place one elastic on top of the rectangle so that a bit of it hangs off the short left side of the fabric, and place the other elastic similarly on the right side. Place the other rectangle on top of the elastics, printed side down.
Pin the fabric and elastics well, and sew all the way around all four edges with 1/4″ seam allowance, leaving a 2″ hole for turning in one of the long edges. Go back and forth a few times over the elastic to make sure it is secure!
Clip the corners and turn the latch cover right side out. Top stitch all the way around with 1/8″ seam allowance in order to close the turning hole. And you’re done! Your elastics should be sticking out of either short edge.
Cute dino, right?! If you pay attention when cutting your original rectangles of fabric, you can choose which parts of the fabric show in your final latch cover.
Just slip the elastic over a doorknob, wrap the cover around the edge of the door, and hook the other elastic over the doorknob on the other side.
Now your doors won’t wake the baby once they finally get to sleep!
What are your favorite baby shower gifts to give? If you’ve had a baby shower, what were your favorite gifts to receive?
Allyson says
This is great! I’ll be featuring it in a bit on my Thursday link up!
Bethany says
Great idea! This never even occurred to me when my son was a newborn, I will definitely need this for our next one!
Ann says
Thanks for linking up to our party Jessi…this is so cute!
Jocie@OPC The Better Half says
what a genius idea! love it!!
Crystal says
Genius!! I don’t have little ones any more, but I sure could have used this!! What an awesome idea!! Pinning it to share with others!!
Katie says
I recognize those guys! 😉
They work great too, except it turns out that a dog barging into a room that’s not latched shut wakes up a baby more than shutting the door in the first place does. Oops.
I think that’s a great idea to keep them from locking themselves in the bathroom or something, though, so I think I will repurpose them for that once he starts crawling–which is going to be soon!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Oh lol! Yeah I guess if the door isn’t totally latched you run the risk of rambunctious dogs barging right in; I can totally see that happening! 🙂 Can’t believe he’s going to be crawling soon!!!
Angela says
So smart and cute! I never would have thought of this and it’s so useful.
Jacque says
You are so sweet did you make these for me??? hehe jk I love these!
Gwen says
That is super brilliant, Jessi! I totally could have used a few of those when the boys were little!
Susan says
Brilliant, Jessi, brilliant!