What should have been the easiest part of making the nursery bedding turned out to be the most annoying project I have ever done. Not difficult, but just time consuming and tedious. Instead of just making straight panels for the crib skirt, I decided to make them with pleats and inside the pleats would be a coordinating fabric. It took WAY more fabric than I had anticipated, therefore using up all the fabric I was going to use for the window valance. We're talking hundreds of inches of fabric that was eventually folded to make pleats and then pinned and sewed to a piece of muslin, which was cut to the crib mattress measurements.
Here is what the mile-long crib skirt looked like, draped over my ironing board...
this picture does not do the length of fabric justice. there is more piled to the left, out of the field of focus.
I don't have a picture of the finished project yet because we have no crib to put it on. We should be ordering one soon. I'm pretty sure I will have a heart attack if the crib skirt doesn't fit, either.
Here are some basic instructions for a pleated crib skirt that I loosely followed with my own measurements for this project. It's a great starting point for making a crib skirt or a bed skirt.
The first part of the nursery bedding is done: The bumper pads!
Below you will find a quick tutorial on how I made them and some pictures.
I'll be honest, I cheated and bought pre-cut batting specifically sized for the crib bumper. I am so glad I did. I even got the batting on sale for 50% off, so I only spent about $13 for all of the batting. Instructions come with the batting, but I did not follow them since I wanted to tweak the pattern a bit.
1. I cut 2 pieces of my main fabric 27" x 11 3/4" and 2 pieces 53" x 11 3/4" for the bumpers.
2. I cut 20 pieces of coordinating fabric 2" x 20" for the ties.
cut to be "tied"
3. I cut 2 pieces of coordinating fabric 2" x 54" and 2 pieces 2" x 28" for the piping. I only added piping to the top edge since it probably wouldn't show on the other edges anyway.
piping cord and fabric
4. I did the piping first, by wrapping the piping with the fabric and sewing right next to the cord with a zipper foot. Further instructions for piping here.
5. I did the ties next, by pressing 1/4" to the wrong side on all edges. Then I folded in half and edge stitched all the way around.
all of the ties completed!
6. I pinned the piping to the right side top edge of my main fabric, with edges together. I sewed it to the main piece using 3/8" seams.
7. I folded the ties in half lengthwise and pinned them to the corners (above the seam allowances on the bottom and within seam allowances on the sides) on the right side of each main piece. On the longer pad pieces, I also sewed a tie to the top and bottom at the 26 1/2" mark (middle.) I pinned all of the ties so they would not get caught in the stitching.
8. I then pinned the main pieces, right sides together. I stitched the tops first where the piping was, and used the stitches already in place as my guide, using a zipper foot. I continued to stitch all the way around, leaving a 8-10" hole in the bottom edge to slide the batting in place.
9. I trimmed each corner and leftover piping away.
10. I turned the covers to the right sides out and slid the batting into the covers. I then pressed the seam allowances down in the open edges and stitched the edges closed.
Congrats, you are done with your bumper pads!
When the Princess saw them, she exclaimed, "Ooooh! My brother will love them! They're sooo cute!" And then she kissed one of the pads. Ha! (She just turned 3.)
