pay no attention to the stuff behind the curtain...adventures in manly crib skirt making

Oh hey guys...2 posts in one week? I am cruising! Well we just got back from vacation this afternoon and I needed to do some crafting, so away I went! While we were gone I went to a Joann Fabrics...who just happened to be having a grand reopening...and handing out 50% and 40% off coupons. How could I resist? I am a sucker for a coupon... So I ended up finding this adorable fabric that worked with my primary colors theme I am going to incorporate into the baby's room. And it would be the perfect crib skirt to hide all of the stuff I am storing under there.



So here is the before shot:

So I had fully planned on using a tutorial. I even researched a TON of them across the world wide web. But I am very bad at following instructions and even worse at measuring and cutting unless I have a printed out pattern (which even then is questionable at best...) So I decided to kinda wing it. Dangerous. I wanted the stripes to be vertical...which meant I needed to use the width of the fabric, which probably worked out better anyways. So I held the fabric up and allowed a little extra for hems on either side and put a little cut in it where I felt it should end. Then I cut 3 pieces the exact same size.(yes I was too lazy to go back down to the table and cut, so I just did it on the floor in front of the crib...)

Then I pinned the front piece centered on the front of the crib since I did not want there to be a seam in the middle of the front.

Then I pinned the next panel on slightly overlapping the first and making a pleat.


Then I finished pinning it all the way around so that I could figure out just how much I would need to cut off the back end.

I then toiled away at the sewing machine, hemming both the top and bottom. I wanted to attach it to the springs with ties because I would prefer to not use buttons or have the stickiness of the velcro left on the crib (though in the end I think I am still going to need to use 2 little spots of velcro on the corners to keep it tight) I started sewing some straps made of the fabric, but it was not turning out exactly as I dreamed of...when I was struck with a fabulous idea...RIBBON. huh. So i handsewed 12 inch lengths of ribbon along the top portion of the skirt...


I then traveled back up the stairs to tie this bad boy to the springs. And I must say that I am glad my monstrous belly is not any larger or the mattress height was not any lower, because it was kinda tough to get them all tied on. Smaller me would have been perfectly alright with it though. Lesson learned...I need to start getting some of this stuff done so that I am not struggling to reach around stuff...

And my finished product...

I am proud of my work. Now to move on to the next project... What it will be no one knows.... (I can't find the fabric I bought for the glider, so maybe looking for it should be my next project...)