How to create your own crib dust ruffle
After much to my dismay at Babies-R-Us when I was trying to buy a baby crib dust ruffle by iteself but they do not sell the bed skirts by themselves. They sell a crib set (bumpers, comforter, crib sheet, dust ruffle & mobile). So.... I decided to that I was going to save $140 and make my own crib skirt. The reason I only wanted the skirt was because I had created my own owl theme in the bedroom and didnt want a comforter.The project took approximately 3 hours to complete.
The items you will need are:
1.) 5 yards of 44in fabric (the fabric you want to be visible)
***When you purchase the fabric from a bolt at the fabric store it comes doubled over. I got my fabric from Jo-Anns's (Craft store) only because I had a 40% coupon off of the fabric, but find that Wal-Marts fabric is cheaper.
***If you want to save money, you can purchase only 3.5 yrds of the lilac fabric. Since the only parts of a crib you generally see is the front and the two sides. You dont have to made the back side ruffle, since it will never be seen if the crib is up next to a wall.
-NOTE: Muslin should cost about $1.99/yard or you can purchase a twin flat sheet from walmart or a discount fabric will do.
3.) Spool of thread (should match the visible fabric color
4.) Marker/Pen (or something to mark the fabric)
5.) flat pins
Since my daugters room is done in different colors of purple, I used lilac colored fabric for the shirt and white muslin for the part that goes under the mattress.
I own the Carter's® Manchester 4-in-1 Crib (Black Cherry). When you take the mattress out the mattress board measures 51 inches by 27 inches. Cut out a rectangle of 53 inches x 29 inches from the muslin. To make it easy take your fabric marker of a marker of any kind and place a 1 inch border all the way around the 4 sides of the muslin and place this to the side.
With the 44 inch fabric make sure that the fold is even on both sides. To ensure this use an iron and get all of the creases out of the fabric. Once you have the fabric ironed take your scizzors and cut along the long fold. This will give you two long strips of fabric.
Place the two long strips on top of each other and measure out:
1.) 53 inches and cut. Measure another 56 inches and cut. You should now have a quantity of (4) 53 inch by 22 inch strips of fabric.
2.) 29 inches and cut. Measure another 29 inches and cut. You should now have a quantity of (4) 29 inch by 22 inch strips of fabric.
You will need to repeat this step for each of the sets of fabric.
1.) Take two of the 56 inch strips and sew the 22 inch sides of the fabric strips together. You will repeat this two times
2.) Take two of the 29 inch strips and sew the 22 inch sides of the fabric strips together. You will repeat this two times if you are going to make the front and back ruffle. Only once if you are just doing the front ruffle.
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For these instructions I am going to provide instructions for completing all four sides of the cribs ruffle.
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You should now have 4 long strips of fabric. Create a 1 inch hem on three sides of each strip. If you are looking at the fabric horizonally. Sew the hem on the left, bottom and right side of the strip. Leave the top unhemed and make sure that the hem is also the same direction of the hem for the joined sides.
Now you have 4 strips of fabric (which are all hemmed on three sides). Now take the muslin and lay it down on a flat surface. With the muslin use the long piece of fabric and and create a overlapped pleat along the long side of the side. This make take some time to get it right, but you will have to play with it. The easiest way I found to do it was to pin the ends first then find the center and pin that with straight pins. When looking at the lines you drew out on the muslin. Pin the left 1 inch in from the end (this is where you mark should start on the fabric. You will need to leave this open because of it fitting around the posts on the crib. Repeat this process on all 4 sides of the muslin with the strips of fabric. This should look like the same as a cardboard box unfolded (i.e. 3 panels up and 3 panels wide). Take the fabric to the sewing machine and sew a 1 inch seam with the lilac fabric and the muslin. Make sure that your seam in facing correctly before you sew it together. The seam should fold down and when finished you should not see any seams.
After the lilac fabric is sewen to the muslin you are ready to fit it to the crib. The 22 inch drop will end up being right around 20 inches long with will just touch the flooring when the mattress board is raised to its highest. You may need to adjust the height as you lower the mattress in the crib. At the point of needing it to be adjusted, just hem the fabric at the bottom accordingly.
The item fit perfect for a Carter's® Manchester 4-in-1 Crib (Black Cherry). Please make sure that you measure your own crib to ensure the fabric is cut correctly. Measure the inside of the crib and add 1 inch to each side (2 inches total).
Here is a picture of the ruffle completed
Here are a few links that I have found this week that have great tutorials. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week.
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/
http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/
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