How To Make A Crib Skirt

One of the favorite things for people to pick out for their nursery is the crib bedding. The crib is usually one of the main focal points of the room, therefore it is one of the places you really want to emphasize the character or theme.

 

There are a lot of tutorials out there for very simple crib skirts -- some as basic as taping a piece of crib skirt fabric to the mattress frame. Of course, I had to fall in love with the pleated kind, so above and beyond the no-sew tutorial we go. I actually had a pattern for a crib skirt from something else I was doing a few years ago and I finally had a reason to pull it back out. Now, pattern directions usually end up confusing me at some point, make no sense at others, and never give me nice straight cut pieces.

 

So If you measured your own pieces and figured out all the directions.Is it so nice?

 

Things You Need

 

3 yards for the base and "upper skirt"

3/4 yard for the "middle crib skirt"

2 yards for the "lower skirt"

3 spools of thread (1 each that matches the upper, middle, and lower crib skirt fabrics)

Good scissors

Pins

Measuring tape (preferably the long heavy duty kind)

Yardstick or other long straight edge

Dressmaker's pencil

 

You will cut one piece 15″ x 54″ and the other 15″ x 27″ to get it the length and width you see in the picture. Just be mindful that at this height, the crib skirt will be too long when you place the mattress in the lowest setting. This is something you can always adjust later, but if you don’t want to bother, use the following measurements so that you don’t have to make adjustments as you move the mattress down over time:

 

10″ x 54″

 

10″ x 27″

 

Once you hem the borders the measurements will be about an inch less which is what you want.

 

The little V’s on the top of each panel in the picture indicate a ribbon which I will explain in a bit…

 

So first thing’s first – you need to sew the sides and the bottoms of each panel first. Leave the part of the crib skirt fabric that will be the top part undone.

 

Take your crib skirt fabric and fold. I would suggest you iron it so it stays in place.

Then fold over again.Sew the double-folded borders, staying close to the inner fold. Do this to all 3 sides.Then for the top part you fold like the rest, but this time you will add 7, 14″ inch long pieces of ribbon, folded in half by tucking them underneath the fold. See below.Secure it with a pin. Then when you position all 7 ribbons, you will sew the seem. When you get to each ribbon you will flip the ribbon up as you are about to sew it.

 You do this so the ribbon sticks upward and not down behind the crib skirt fabric since these are what you are going to use to attach it to the crib. Repeat this for all 3 panels.

 

When attaching the panels start with the sides. All you do is tie them to the springboard.You want the crib skirt fabric to come over the frame just a little bit. Then you do the front panel.The front will overlap the side panels and that is okay. Here is the finished product.

 I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you are like me or know someone who is and doesn’t like any of the animal print nursery bedding, you can personalize your nursery by creating easy little touches like these and just keep the fitted sheets etc. neutral.