Esther 4:14b

"...and who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this."


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tutorial Tuesday: Box Pleat Crib Skirt

I’m slowly making progress on the crib bedding and last week I finished up the crib skirt. I’m so happy with how it turned out.

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It is 18” long which is the perfect length because it hides the drawers under the crib when the mattress is at the top setting and it will just brush the floor when I drop the mattress down to the middle setting. I guess I’ll just have to go without when/if we drop the mattress down to the very bottom setting.

(Side note: HUGE thank you to some great friends from church who gave us their old crib. Ideally, I would have taken the time to paint it white, but at this stage in the game, it works just fine how it is.)

As you see in the picture, the crib sheets are pink (2 light and 2 dark) and the bumper will be out of the green fabric with the striped fabric as binding and ties. My mother-in-law made the binding for me quickly this past weekend and I’m hoping to get the bumper complete this week, but we’ll see.

I made up my own steps for sewing the box pleat skirt as I went along, so I’m sure there is a faster/more proper way to do it, but here are the steps I took to make an 18” skirt with two different fabrics and a box pleat (NOTE: I only had the skirt hang on the front and sides of the crib since the back is against the wall. If you want a 4-sided skirt, repeat the steps/materials for the front.)

MATERIALS

For under mattress:
1 - White sheet cut to the (length + 1”) x (width + 1”) of your crib

For front of skirt (double if you’re making a 4-sided skirt):
1 - Main fabric (green paisley in my case) cut to 15” wide x (length + 8”) of your crib
1 - Accent fabric (stripe in my case) cut to 5” wide x (length + 8”) of your crib

For sides of skirt:
2 - Main fabric cut to 15” wide x (length + 1”) of side of crib
2 - Accent fabric cut to 5” wide x (length + 1”) of side of crib

 

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For the front and side panels, place the top of the accent piece against the bottom of the main piece right sides together and sew using a 1/2” seam allowance.

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Fold the bottom of your accent piece up a 1/2” and pin. I did this step second so I could ensure that my accent strip was exactly 4” wide because I’m not the best when it comes to cutting my fabric straight, but you could do it before you attach your accent piece to your main piece if you prefer.

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Sew hem using a 1/4” seam allowance.

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Trim excess fabric along the hem you just stitched.

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Press seam between the main piece and accent piece open and then press it back over and sew 1/8” from your original stitch line to create a top stitch on your main fabric. (I did this for the sides, but didn’t do it for the front – it’s optional).

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Trim the excess fabric from the seam.

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To create the box pleat (only on the front panel), I laid my fabric right side up. Find the middle of the panel and place a pin there. Fold one side of the fabric over the middle pin (right sides together) so that you have 1.75” to the side of the middle pin. Refold the fabric back on itself (wrong sides together, but right side again facing up) and pin. Repeat on the other side. Each fold on the side of the middle pin should be 1.75” long from the middle pin to the edge of the fold, giving you a total pleat of 3.5” from the edge of the fold on one side of the middle pin to the edge of the fold on the other. Here’s a closer look at the pinned pleat.

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Using a 1/4” seam allowance, run a quick stitch across the top of your pleat so you can remove the pins.

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Hem the sides of all three panels (2 sides and front) by folding the fabric up 1/2” and sew using a 1/4” seam allowance. Trim excess fabric.

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With right sides together, pin the top of the front of your skirt to one of the long sides of the white sheet. Sew using 1/2” seam allowance.

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Repeat for the 2 sides.

You’re all done! Place it on the crib under the mattress and step back to admire your work. Well, maybe iron it again first unlike I did and then step back to admire your work.

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You’ll notice the crepe paper flower wreath peeking out the top of the crib. Sorry I haven’t shown you yet what I’ve done with it like I said I would last week, but this very pregnant momma is running a little behind.

The best part about the crib bedding is that I get a custom look for a very affordable price. For all three fabrics (the green paisley, pink stripe and green lattice print) I paid less than $50 and I have enough to make the skirt, bumper and valances for the windows.

The downside of my crib skirt making experience?

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I completely forgot to account for the fact that due to the drawers underneath the crib, the side of the skirt is not able to hang down so half of my fabric is just bunched up on top of the drawer. Haven’t decided yet if I’m going to take the drawer out and forgo it or if I’m going to hem my sides up shorter…I hate cutting off perfectly good fabric :(

Linkin’ up to Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios. Hop on over to check out more awesome projects.

2 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful and great tutorial, I am about to start making in colors for a friend's baby boy shower (tomorrow...aaaagh!). Just had a thought about the ends that can't hang down.... could you attach the trimmed cut-off piece by velcro, or somehow, to fill the few inches of gap to the floor? This would make it appear to be draping all the way to the floor. Good luck and thanks for great photos too!
    Stella Hall : stellahall09@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know you posted this tutorial some time ago, but just a quick "Thanks!" for the walk-through. Made my first crib skirt using these easy instructions!

    ReplyDelete

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