Our Rope Bed - Part 2

Last year, David and I decided to build ourselves a rope bed as a more economical option to buying a new mattress, frame, sheets, etc. See Our Rope Bed - Part 1
for the details. We have just completed phase two: the mattress, down feather topper, and sheets.

This is the frame David built during Part 1. Total cost of materials was $150, and it should last a lifetime.

We started making the mattress with one layer of polyester batting and 10 layers of cotton batting.

Next we took the cotton batting and foam out of the old full sized futon mattress my mother gave us and layered it on top. We also took some of my polyester fiberfill and fabric scraps to add to the mix.

Then we put another layer of the polyester batting on top. The polyester batting came from my mother-in-law. It was leftover from some school projects.

Lastly we placed 10 more layers of cotton batting on top of all the other layers. The cotton batting I bought online 50% off for $150.

This is a side view of the layers. You will notice that the cotton batting from the old mattress is not compressed like the new batting I bought. It seems to make for a bit firmer mattress. I think it will last longer with the addition of the compressed batting.


Then we stuffed it into a pillowcase like mattress cover.


I chose to safety pin the opening closed so that I could open it later and add more fabric scraps as they are available. I was going to make stitches in the mattress to hold it all together, but the needles I bought bent when I tried. Thankfully it does not seem to be necessary. If I were to go back and make the mattress again, the only thing I would change would be to safety pin the top and bottom layers of batting together to help old the structure a little better and to safety pin at least two sides closed so it would be easier to get access to the entire inside of the mattress. However, it seems to work just fine as is!


I tried to sew the old full sized feather topper and my sister's old twin feather topper together, but it proved too much for my sewing machine so I just stapled it together. (My sister gave us the old twin feather topper that she no longer uses.) The feather topper really makes a poly/cotton/foam futon mattress much more comfortable.


The stapling seemed to work out just fine! Below are the sheets I made on the final product. I spent a total of $100 on fabric for the sheets and the mattress. I ordered it from an online wholesale fabric store that specialized in wide fabrics so I would not have a seam down the middle of the sheets.

And there you have it! Our California King Sized Rope Bed with new mattress and sheets for a total investment of about $400!

We have already started working on Part 3: the quilt and down comforter for winter. When we got married, we sent out quilt squares with the wedding invitations for people to decorate and bring to the wedding. I am really enjoying going through all of them and putting them together! I will post pictures once I am finished. We are also still planning to had a headboard and a footboard, but that will probably have to wait until next year. There are too many other projects to work on right now!