Make something Monday: Fabric and plywood baby gate

We have a baby on the move and no way to contain him! Kellen loves the stairs, he is amazing at climbing them at record speeds. However, when he tries to get back down, he turns to sit on the stairs and can't fit his little booty on that skinny step and goes flailing backwards. It's all very entertaining to watch... the first 300 times. But after spending an entire day on the stairs I am over it!

We have an awkward stair situation, a banister with little skinny spindles on one side and a wall on the other. So a gate is out. I started looking into other alternatives. Like chairs, couch cushions etc. This baby will not be distracted by an obstacle. I turned to my friend, the internet, and looked for some retractable gates and such, but they are pricy! The most inexpensive one I could find that didn't look horrible was like $100, no way, Jose!

I found this little pin on my baby board, but it was a little involved, so I had to improvise...
You need:
Plywood cut to size
Twin size quilt batting (I found mine at Hobby Lobby for $13 and it was 30% off!)
Fabric (I bought 3 yards for $8.99 at Hobby Lobby and I used a 40% off coupon)
A staple gun

We had a piece of plywood in the back yard, so I asked the mister to cut it down to size for me.

I left the batting doubled and laid it out, then centered the wood on top of it.
Then, staple the batting on tightly and trim off the excess.

Next, lay out the fabric and center the batting covered wood on it.

I used a fabric with a geometric pattern, so it was easy to line things up using the lines of the shape.

Then staple the fabric to the wood, making sure to pull tightly before stapling.

I folded the corners, like so, and stapled them down along the edges.

I had a small section of wood showing and used a piece of extra fabric to fill it in.

And.. done! So far it has kept Kellen from scaling upstairs and it's easy to slide to the side if you want to get up. For under $30! Money saved $60 +, your welcome dear Husband!