Full price? or "fool" price?

Look, I understand we all want the best for our kids, and sometimes that means forking out a large chunk of money for things we can't make ourselves. But I also think, at least for me anyway - part of being a mother is learning to be resourceful, and sometimes, buying brand-name stuff at overly inflated prices is going against every grain of my motherly-instinct. I just don't like the thought of being taken advantage by some corporate brand-name retailer just because I have an inherent need to keep my kids safe and comfortable.

There is this thing out right now called the Boppy Newborn Lounger...OK, to be perfectly blunt - it looks like a dog bed for newborn babies:


Am I wrong? =)


Having said that, I'm not going to lie, it still looked pretty cozy, and I can see the benefit to having one if you are limited on space. And in our case - we are VERY limited on space. Anyway, when it came down to it - I wanted one (for the baby...not me), but at $40-$50 a pop - no thanks! So again, I naturally tried to take a stab at making one with some remnant fabric I had lying around. I had no pattern to go off of - I pretty much looked up the product dimensions on a retailer's website, sketched out the shape on some fabric, and cut away. And it definitely didn't come out too shabby:

One side:


Other side:

With the stuffing, I think this was about $7 to make, and mine is reversible - one side cotton, and one side flannel (but that was purely done out of necessity - I didn't have enough of one fabric for both sides.).

Flannel:

Cotton:


And thankfully, this only took me about 45 minutes to make from start to finish. I am sure if someone was an advanced seamstress, they could make this in about 20 minutes or so, if not less time. Thinking about how easy/cheap this was to make makes me wonder why they are being sold for $40-ish dollars each (retail)....oh yeah - brand-name price inflation! Oh - you sneaky, sneaky corporate giants....I'm on to you......