I'm completely clueless and would love some help

[BobLoblaw]

My dd is severely visually impaired, she has a new(ish) all singing all dancing monstrosity of a bed, and I would really like to make a black and white bed bumper type thing, I was thinking of using fleece so I don't have to hemand making it twice the height needed so I can just hang it over the side when the side is up, iyswim? I'm absolutely clueless so it needs to be quite simple, it would be lovely if I could incorporate some sensory touchy feely things too but that may be too tricky for a novice.

If you have any hints or tips or things I could use that would be fairly straight forward I would be very grateful :)

You could simply put pillows on retractable sides on the bed, so you could lower the "bumpers" when required. You could construct a simple "cage" that is open on the top to support the pillows, thus reducing the chances of injury. This would only require a little bit of welding to construct the cage, but otherwise it should be a very simple yet effective solution.

steingrims, you seem normal on this thread, do you fancy explaining your comment to emptyshell?

Boblob, sounds good., Would it attach to the bed in some way, because otherwise theres a chance it might slip off easily? I am making a playmat at the moment, dont know if any of this will be any use to you.

Baby wipe packets make great rustly sounds and would be easy to incorporate if you cut out a square of material, placed it over the top of a wipe packet square, folded the edges around it and then sewed round the edges onto the backing material.

You could make simple pockets using the same technique but only sewing around three sides of the square and ommiting the rustly thing.

If you have a bell or a squeaky thing, cut a circle out of your material (I use a bowl as a template) then sew a wide stitch all the way around the outside, about 0.5 cms from the edge. Pull the threads and it should form a ball shape which you can then stuff with polyfil and the bell.

You could attach things to it with poppers/velcro/loops/knots very easily e.g. a string of bells, strung pinecones, kitchen implements like spatulas and brushes, which can then be removed if you want to wash it.

Good luck, hope it all turns out well.

There's a picture of the bed sides on my profile, the blue is mesh so I was thinking I could just use big safety pins through the back part and the mesh, to stop it slipping.

Thank you for those tips it's really helpful, I use space blankets or wine bags to make the rustly noise but might do a baby wipes packet too.