Mattress cover material

[Red Charlotte]

We thought we were being brilliant! Alas, 'twas not the case! We have a full, foam mattress from Ikea. I made a cloth outline of the current v-berth mattress and placed that on the ikea mattress, we then chopped it up to fit the pattern, turning the bottom triangles on their sides to complete the top 'V' of the mattress shape.

Long story short (too late), we decided to wash the mattress cover, and it shrank. Dammit. I'm going to sew a new mattress cover and thought I would ask all ye salty dogs for recommendations on a good material.

Should I stick with cotton? Use something a little more water resistant? Regardless, I'll have sheets on top of it, but thought I would check before I started sewing away.

Thanks for any help.

We found that the biggest problem we had with any mattress was condensation. To prevent that right next to the foam we put a layer of light plastic (painter's tarp). That keeps the water vapor from body sweat out of the foam. We then covered that with a standard quilted mattress pad altered to the shape. It works great! No more dampness under the mattress.

Bill

[StolenChild]

Whatever material you use, wash and dry it a couple of times before cutting and sewing. Sometimes I serge the edges first if it is bad about fraying.

[Red Charlotte]

Roger that StolenChild. And thank you Greatketch, that's a great idea.

[Roy M]

RED CHARLOTTE, I just bought a mattress cover at Costco that you might want to check out. It costs about $130, comes in verious sizes, and has two sides: one is 1 1/2" of "memory foam" (as in that fancy Swedish mattress), the other side is 2 1/2" of polyester fiberfill. The fiberfill part is zippered to hold the foam. I plan to cut the foam down to the bunk size (54" X 80") slip the fiberfill cover, and place it on a new 3" medium density foam base. The top portion, "memory foam" on top, should be nice and cushy, with the poly fill "breathing" the moisture out through the cotton cover, and the deeper foam keeping me from "bottoming out". It beats paying $1000 for the "memory foam" mattress.

Also, at UFO in National City, you can have a custom mattress made, or possibly have them stitch the cover for you. It's worth a call. I'm going to ask them about how to install the memory foam into one package.

[Pericles]

How about wrapping the foam in towelling. It could look pretty good and be easy to wash.

Pericles

[Roy M]

I installed the mattress cover, previously mentioned, yesterday. It's fabulous! I am replacing my old mattress with a newer 3" foam, medium density, covered with conventional ticking and piping. The skirt of the cover is elastic and encloses the new mattress. I will probably also lay a folded cotton sheet underneath it all to keep the ticking cleaner.

Oh, and I had the dimensions crossed up. It's 2 1/2 inches of foam, 1 1/2" of polyfill. The cover materials crush to nothing, almost, when you lie in the bunk, so you aren't gaining any "altitude".