~ Bedskirt Tutorial ~

I have lived in my home still less than one year, and yet my bed ... and it's dressing ... have been a revolving door of change. Part of the problem is that I made the decisions (and bought new bed linens) before I had actually moved into my house. In fact it was in the summer of 2010 that I purchased the above bed skirt (which was plain white and relatively cheap) and painstakingly sewed the stripes on it (with a "satin" stitch) to match the nautical striped sheets I had previously purchased.

Over the course of the last year I have felt the need for frou frou ... or at least something more feminine in my room. Out with the nautical and in with the pastels. Oh yes, and I also found that the cheap bedskirt was cheap for a reason ... it's about 3 inches too short. One day I was musing on what would make a perfect bedskirt and I decided that a pale blue and white stripe was the ticket. Then I remembered that I had hauled my old (king sized) pale blue and white striped sheets across state lines ... and I was good to go.

I won't go into the details about the measurement and the cutting. What is important here is how the heck do you create a ruffle in something over 150 inches long without breaking a few basting stitches in the process? The answer is ... string. Thin string. You apply it to the (wrong side of the) fabric with a zig-zag stitch (hint: make that zig-zag stitch fairly long and wide to make your life easier), making sure to leave 3 or 4 inches of string on either end to give you something to pull on. You can see that I put a hem at the top of the skirt (I am making the 3 sides of the skirt separately) and that I did not attempt to pull the ruffle through the 3 layers of the hem, placing the string right below that. I used my Bernina #23 foot, but any zig-zag foot will do.

Just for fun I will tell you that several years ago, I picked up this lovely bird tin at an antique's store. It came with that little hole in the top which I figured out was just perfect for my string. I use this string-ruffle technique often on home dec items. I used it in spades when I chose to put ruffles on my white, denim slipcovers.

Back to the bedskirt. I have made bedskirts in the past which I have sewn to a piece of fabric (usually ... the old bedskirt) which lays under the mattress and requires removing the mattress to lay out the skirt and is a rather large pain. The anticipation of dealing with that pain sometimes prevents me from washing said bedskirt as often as I should. (Oh ... you know what I'm talking about.) So this time I chose to attach each side of the skirt separately (hence, the hem at the top) and I chose to do so with good, old-fashioned safety pins. I just moved the mattress to the side a few inches, and when I was done pinning (I used 5 or 6 pins which I attached each piece to the old skirt and not to the box-springs) ...

I moved the mattress back in place ...

... and then attached the other side. At that point I picked up my sewing machine and took it to be repaired/cleaned/oiled ... something that had been on my agenda for weeks.

Unfortunately, I had not yet completed the bottom skirt before I had to do that ... but I will. I promise. I am so in love with my bed and all of it's frills and ruffly feminity. I had everything on hand except the large safety pins so ...

My new bedskirt cost me a grand total of $1.44.

Linking to:

The Girl Creative

Made by You Monday

Sew Happy Geek

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
White Wednesday