A bed skirt tutorial!

Just as promised- here's the tutorial for the bed skirt I made for MK's room!

The hardest part of any sewing project is the preparation and planning. First, you have to measure your mattress length, width and height from the floor. For an average twin mattress that would be 75"x39'x18". Add 1/2 an inch to your measurements for a hem allowance. 

Next, find your fabric! I got 4 yards of a 54" width fabric (I got more than I would had I used a solid color because of the pattern repeat on this fabric).  You also need a piece of fabric the size of the mattress- I used an old sheet, you could use muslin. 

After you plan out how long and wide your fabric strips need to be, start cutting! A little tip, for most cotton fabrics, you can cut a small straight line and rip the fabric so that you can get a straight line- but test this first! To keep the pattern in my fabric consistent, I made sure that every panel had a centered flower. I ended up have a couple inches of wasted fabric between every panel (that's what I was talking about with the pattern repeat). Had I not done that, the pattern would be off on every panel and it wouldn't look uniform. 

Next, I had to piece together my two 75" panels. This was tricky, but I made it work! Pin the panel pieces together, sew them right sides together, and cut off the excess fabric to make your long panels. 

Pinning together the panels! 

The sewing part is easy. Iron out your panels, turn the bottom edge in 1/4 inch and iron a hem, then pin it together. Do the same on the ends. Sew all of your hems using a straight stitch. 

Once you have all of your panels hemmed, start sewing them onto your base. Make sure you pin them in place before sewing. Sew the panels and the base right sides together. 

Finally, iron all of your panels so that they look pristine on your bed! And voila! You've got a beautiful new bed skirt! 

Happy sewing!
Love,
Katy