Baby Crib Skirt (a very basic one)

Posted by Ashley  34 Comments 

Okay, I’m finally kicking it into gear and finishing up Chloe’s nursery.  If you’ve missed the other parts of her room, you can find them here:

Wood LOVE sign…..Fabric/Tulle Skirt (for mini dress form)…..Little Birdie Wall Hangings

I hinted last week that I was working on her Crib Skirt.  You know, to not only add a little color and detail to Chloe’s room…..but to also hide all sorts of junk underneath. :)

And here it is:

It’s a very simple, non-fussy skirt…….but gathers in nicely and finished off her little crib.

It’s actually just straight un-gathered panels of fabric that are pulled in along these chunky ties, creating a gathered look.  So no special skills or extra gathering/ruffling steps.  Only straight lines and ironing.

 **You could easily made this more masculine (for those baby boy cribs) and just create smaller panels of fabric that don’t need to be gathered in.

The two front corners are cinched in and tied together.  But to keep the center front from sagging, I made the front section into two section and then wrapped a little velcro around the tie at the center front, to hold it up a little better.  Once you gather up the fabric…..you’ll never see the opening between the two panels.

And if your corners are sagging, you can always add more velcro wraps at the corners.  (More on that below.)

It turned out to be just what Chloe’s crib needed. Hooray…..glad it’s finally done! :)

Would you like to make your own Baby Crib Skirt?

**These directions are made for a crib skirt that’s 14.5 inches tall.  Adjust accordingly.**

****And if you don’t care for the ruffled look (for a boy crib??), just create straight panels, that are just the right length and don’t need to be gathered in.

I made my crib skirt by using 4 equal rectangles.  1 for each side and 2 for the front.  The length of a crib is about double it’s depth, so it works out perfectly and keeps the gathering uniform.  So, cut out 4 equal rectangles that are 18.5 inches tall and 50 inches wide.

Now, start with one of your rectangles and finish off the sides first by folding over a 1/2 inch, another 1/2 inch, and then sew in place.  Then do the same thing to the bottom edge.  Iron everything flat.

Here’s a close-up.

Repeat with the other 3 rectangles pieces.

Now, create some long ties that will be threaded along the top of each crib skirt.  You can make yours much thinner or make it wider than me……but I made mine about 2.5 inches wide.  To do so, I cut out strips of fabric that were 6 inches wide.  The length for the two strips that you’ll be using for the side skirts were about 60 inches long.  And the long strip for the front was about 100 inches long.  You’ll probably have to sew some fabric together to make strips long enough.  Then turn them into tube, turn right side out, and press. (Need help with turning a tube?)

 

Now, you’ll need to make the casing along the top of each bed skirt panel, for the ties to be threaded through.  Grab one of your rectangles and fold over the top edge a 1/2 inch and iron flat.  Then, fold it over again 2.5 inches and iron again.  Then sew a seam right along the very bottom edge, near the fold. Repeat with the other 3 panels.

 

Then, grab one of the rectangles and one of the SHORTER ties and thread it through.  Once it reaches the other end, only pull it out a 1/2 inch or so, and sew the tie down in place on the one end.

 

Here’s a closer look.  Then trim off that extra fabric edge. 

 

**Do the same thing with another one of the rectangles and the other shorter tie.  But be sure that you pull the tie through the top casing starting at the other end and sew it down at the opposite end as the first one.  Because these two side panels go on opposite sides of the crib and mirror each other.

Now, on each of those two panels where you just sewed down one end of your strips and then trimmed it off…….you’ll add a strip of velcro.  This will allow you to secure one end to the crib.  Cut a strip of the fuzzy side of velcro that’s long enough to go around your crib bar.  Then cut another smaller scratchy piece of velcro.  Place the long piece face down and the scratchy piece face up.  Sew them down to the end of the panel (that has the tie sewn down).

 

Here’s a closer look.  The smaller scratchy piece is face up, the fuzzy longer piece is facing down. 

 

That way, when you wrap it around one of the bars of the crib, it will loop around and secure itself onto the scratchy velcro piece.  Repeat with the other side panel.

 

Now, attach each velcro end to the far side of each crib side. 

Now, for the other two panels that go on the front of the crib.  Grab your other 2 panels and thread your long tie through them both.

Now, the reason I made this front panel in two pieces, was so that I could easily secure the very center of the panel to the crib……so I didn’t sag in the middle.  So, I cut some thinner velcro that I could wrap it around the tie in the center, and secure it to the crib.  The concept is similar to the velcro above except it’s not going to be sewn to the fabric.  (In fact, you could use ribbon or string and just tie the panel in place at the center.  However, I just liked the idea of making removal and adjustments easier with the velcro.) 

So, I cut a long piece of velcro (this time it was the scratchy side….but it doesn’t matter) and then cut a shorter piece of the soft side of veclro and sewed them back to back.

 

So that it could loop around and secure onto itself.

 

And then, I wrapped it around the tie (between the two panels) and the crib, right at the center of the crib.

 

Now, slide each panel of fabric along the ties, gathering the fabric up a bit.  Then grab a tie from one of the sides and one of the front ties…….and tie them together into a big floppy bow.  Do the same to the other corner.  Adjust the gathers, keeping the spacing even and pull the fabric downward, to help keep the look uniform.  (However, before I got too fussy about the spacing of everything, I trimmed my ties to the length that I wanted, and hemmed them by folding each end under a 1/4 inch, another 1/4 inch, then sew in place.  I just wasn’t sure exactly how long I wanted them until I had the crib skirt in place.  But then I put them back up and evenly spaced the gathers.)

 

 And remember, if your corners are sagging, add a few more velcro wraps to the corners.  That will hold it up nicely.

Enjoy!

-Ashley