For Seller

By: Robert Meier

Cocalo, a designer of moderately priced crib bedding since the late 1990’s, manufactures crib bedding and nursery accessories collections under his house brand, Cocalo, and a variety of licensed brands, including: Baby Martex, OshKosh, and Kimberly Grant. Pocket Full of Posies is one of their more popular collections from the Baby Martex line, first made available for sale in early 2005. Pocket Full of Posies has been a consistently popular selection for moms of baby girls who are seeking an old-fashioned, but stylish, feminine nursery décor. At less than $200 for a four-piece set, it appears very reasonably priced for the quality delivered.

Pocket Full of Posies crib bedding is normally sold as a four-piece set, consisting of a lightweight patchwork blanket, green calico dust ruffle, three-tiered four-sided bumper, and fitted floral sheet. Moms should be pleased to see that Cocalo sells this pattern in the four-piece set. Cocalo, following the lead of other manufacturers, is increasingly introducing new patterns in six-piece sets which include a diaper stacker and valance. The smaller sets, combined with the availability of the other items as separate accessories, provides the consumer with the most flexibility. Unfortunately, none of the pieces of the Pocket Full of Posies four-piece set is available separately, thereby reducing consumer choices. In particular, an extra fitted sheet, frequently desired by consumers, is not available for the Pocket Full of Posies collection.

A modest selection of nursery décor accessories are also available, including: musical mobile, lamp shade, wall hangings, wall border, pillows, valances, and diaper stacker. This collection incorporates a wide variety of colors and patterns, which is sometimes confusing for moms trying to coordinate wall colors with the selected bedding. I have had a professional interior designer recommend an interesting variety of possibilities, using shades of almond, peach, and orchid for the primary wall colors. This is a set that moms should feel free to experiment with for wall colors - many combinations will work very effectively.

Cocalo has done more than enough quality-wise to justify the price of this collection. I confess to having a strong personal preference for patterned fabrics that are woven, not printed. In woven fabrics, differently dyed or colored threads are woven together in a manner to create the desired pattern. Contrast this with printed fabrics, where a pattern is imprinted on the surface of a solid colored fabric. Woven fabrics are superior to, and more expensive than, printed fabrics, being more vibrant, durable, and color-fast. While almost exclusively printed fabrics are used in the Pocket Full of Posies collection, they really had little choice given the intracacy of many of the flowery patterns. I examined each fabric very closely and came away impressed with the quality of these printed poatterns. The patterns appear to have been imprinted or dyed very "deeply" into the fabric, with the pattern actually appearing on both sides of the fabric. I would guess that these fabrics will hold up very well to repeated washings.

This crib bedding represents a significant departure from the heavily themed bedding with that seems all the rage these days - with themes primarily communicated through large embroidered appliques on the various pieces. Pocket Full of Posies takes a more "old-fashioned" approach, combining an interesting collection of patterned fabrics, with the focus being on color and fabric design. I think they were very successful.

Robert Meier is President of Baby Supermall, an online retailer of