A Pleated Crib Skirt - no ruffles here

This is a tutorial for a box-pleated mattress skirt. I made this one for new granddaughter's crib, but you can use the same method for any sized mattress. Quilt weight cottons or blends or any similar weight material work well.

GUIDE:  The BASE is white, the SKIRT is the pleated birdie print, the TRIM is green

The BASE.  The size of the crib mattress is 57" x 21".  I cut the base to 58" x 22" using a twin sheet that we no longer use.  (Crib mattresses come in different sizes, so measure yours and add 1/2" to each side for a seam allowance)

The Crib SKIRT.  I chose to cut the design fabric into 18" strips, joining each segment end to end, forming one really long strip. (I used a serger to join the segments and finish the edges in one step, but you can use a regular sewing machine)

All sections of skirt joined with a serged edge

After pressing the seams flat, I folded the strip into approximately 8" pleats along its entire length, pinning each pleat at the beginning and end of each pleat.  I then pinned the pleats to the base and adjusted some of the the pleats so a "pleat-opening" would fall at each corner of the mattress.  I needed to do some adjusting, which made some of the pleats meet 1/2" apart and a few meet up to 1" apart, but its not very noticeable.  (FYI - More fabric is needed for a box-pleat than is needed for a ruffled skirt.  This one ended up having 37 linear feet)

Pleating of the skirt

After all the pleats were pinned the way I wanted, I removed the strip from the base and sewed a basted running-stitch 1" down from the top along the length to hold the pleats in place while completing the remaining steps. 

This pleated strip was then pinned to the base using safety pins which are better when working with so much fabric.   

At this point, I sewed the skirt to the base 1/2" from the edges using my serger to finish the seam off; but again, you can use a regular machine and finish the seams later. 

Attach the pleats to the base, finish edges with serger

The TRIM.  I chose to add a 2" trim along the bottom in a coordinating print.  For the width of a 2" trim piece, you need to cut strips 5" wide (2" on each side, plus 1/2" seam allowance).  Measure the length of the skirt and add 1/2" for each seam allowance.  Also add 1" for the beginning and end pieces that will need to be folded over and overlapped (a total of 2").  (In my case, the length was 37.5 feet, plus 4" more for the seams, plus 2" for the ends)

 

Serged ends of trim pieces, press in one direction

Join all your segments making sure you trim off the white unprinted areas at the selvedges.  Press the seams to one side before attaching to the bottom of the skirt.

Attach trim to the skirt

Sew the trim to the skirt, leaving the about an inch of each end "un-sewn" until later.

Now that the trim and skirt are attached, it's important to press at this point.  Press the seam toward the trim piece.  While at the ironing board, fold over a double fold along the outer edge of the skirt and press.  Fold the trim over to cover the seam.  Pin and press.

Fold trim over the seam and pin, then press

While you're still at the board, at the point where the two end edges meet, turn over a 1/4" hem, and then another 1/2" hem, press.  Then overlap the two folded edges, placing one on top of the other.  Pin them to the skirt, and press them up and over the hemmed area and pin in place in the same way as the rest of the length. (Now that you've folded over the "un-sewn" ends, you'll need to attach them to the skirt when you get back to your machine)

Now off to your machine to hem the trim (remember to finish sewing the "un-sewn" area first).  At this point, you can hem using a your machine's blind hem stitch, or simply top-stitch a nice straight line (using a regular stitch length).  Now, if you've been serging the seams, you're done.  If you haven't, then its nice to finish the seams to prevent those nagging ravels.  You can either run a line of zig-zagging on each side of the seam edges, or turn the edges under and hem each one.

Remember to remove that basting you did earlier, and you're done.
 

Sunday's Child is Bonny and Blithe ...

Wrenn and Julie

Here's our newest grandchild, Wrenn Aria (birdsong).  She and Momma are doing well. 

She weighs in at 8# 11oz. and 20.5 in. long.  AND she has a head full of red hair.....just like her grandma :)  Born Sunday, January 12.

Mom had to undergo an unexpected C-section, but all turned out well for her and little Wrenn.  Aunt Katie arrived in town just 3 hours before, and was able to be in surgery with Julie, and was a great support to her and Ben, too.  A truly special delivery. 

That's all for now.   

Counting Blessings

Good Bye 2013!  Happy to see you go.

This past year has been a challenging one and at times a very painful one for Lee and me.  So, its oh-so-nice to enter into a new year with high hopes for peace and the return of joyful times.  As is natural, we look forward from where we ended, and I always start each New Years with counting my Blessings.  I thought I'd share a few of ours with you, Dear Friends.

Blessings of Note:

Good Friends=good times to share:  We've made a couple of good friendships here in our Newport News home.  Our new neighbors are very friendly, and anxious to be helpful, and always have a friendly wave and "hello".  We're forming a new friendship with another couple on our block with whom we have fun and enjoy many common interests. We renewed an old friendship with a couple that live nearby, Terri and Edward. Unfortunately, Edward was recently diagnosed kidney cancer, and started chemo about a month ago.  He had been feeling pretty well with his chemo, with occasional fatigue, but last week he came down with a serious infection and spent New Years Eve in ER.  He was admitted and was scheduled to go home yesterday, but he suffered a set-back and now his release is uncertain.  We continue to pray for and are very hopeful for his return to health.  We all have so many more movies to  go see, and adventures to share.

Grandchildren=smiling:  On the positive side, we are 5 1/2 hours from Charlotte where our newest grandchild will be born shortly, and we've found a 5 hour route to Baltimore where our other 6 grandchildren live.  Well now, we have plenty of time as well as good tires on the car, so we can enjoy them much more than ever.  We're really looking forward to greeting our newest grandchild in the next few weeks.  Julie has been feeling pretty uncomfortable for several weeks now, but the last couple of days she's feeling better.  It seems the baby has turned with her head downward.  Yay!  So, it won't be long now.  Julie's sister, Katie, is flying down from Akron to spend next week with her in hopes she delivers while she's visiting.  Wouldn't that be great!  Exciting times. 

Pets=comfort:  Our pets consist of just 2 cats now, and we are enjoying them immensely.  Daisy is about 17 years old.  She's not able to jump high anymore, but she still can make it up onto the chairs, and loves to play.  The other, Annebelle, is about 5 years old.  Both are calicos that we saved from the wild.  The younger one has been a challenge because she suffered brain damage early in her life, and so she has moments of unreasonable fear which causes her to strike out.  We've been working with her and she leads a pretty calm and loving existence, but we still have strict rules we must live by where she's concerned.  They both crack us up with their never-ending shenanigans, though.  They make us laugh out loud everyday. 

Good Health=ease of living:  We are both pretty healthy now.  Last summer I reached my 5th year of survival from kidney cancer, and my 8th year from melanoma.   Fewer doctors and medical personnel and No CT scan this year (knock on wood)!  Woot - Woot!  After suffering with plantar facciatis (sp?) for the last 6 years, as well, I'm thrill to say the pain has finally subsided, and I am now able to resume walking.  No more limping and no more pain.  ahhhhh.  Such a blessing.

Our Home=Adventure:  For the last couple of years Lee and I have referred to "Home" as being "where our kitties live".  We've felt like we had no "home", only places we spent time in.  Then we found this house which has needed a ton of work.  Now, all the construction is finished, and we are living "normally" again.  We both are retired now, and our four children are grown and living their own lives, so its finally time for 'us' after 36 years. You see, I brought two small children into our marriage, so we've never had "alone" time.  Our lives have revolved around our family-life.  Now that our youngest is out and on her own, we have time for each other.  This has been a quite learning experience for us, and after a rough start, we're enjoying our time together.  Lee keeps using the word "adventure", and its true.  Our new life has been quite an adventure which I didn't really appreciate so much until a few weeks ago.  I've struggled with homesickness much more than Lee, and then a terrible rift in an important relationship occurred, so the term "adventure" was NOT what I was calling it all.  But, now that I'm embracing what I have and letting the rest fall away, I am beginning to look at our new life together as an "Adventure" as well.  Peace is returning, and we're finally feeling like this may be our home.  Regardless of whether we stay here or move elsewhere, I know we're going to be looking at 2014 with an eye for the Adventure.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year filled with rich Blessings, Joys, and Adventures of your own.

--Karen

Kickin' around the Kitchen

Hope you had a lovely Holiday.  We spent Christmas with our Grandchildren living near Baltimore.  It was just beautiful because Mother Nature gave us a surprise gift of a covering of snow Christmas morn.  

My husband is spending the week with our son helping him remodel his kitchen.  I left him up there, and he'll be taking the train home when they finish.  So, I've been "home alone" for the last few days....perfect for getting some serious sewing done, you'd think, right?  But, instead I've been cooking and cleaning instead.  What gives with THAT!  All the floors have been mopped, the laundry is done, the dusting is complete as well, and the bathrooms sparkle.    I've made chili, bean soup, and spaghetti sauce, and they are in the freezer just waiting for next week, when the hubby comes home.  The only thing left to do is drag the trash to the curb tonight, and all is right in the world.

Heck, I'm on a roll, and all that energy is going to be focused on the Sewing Table tomorrow.  Psyched!  I'm pulling out my new fabric for the baby crib and cutting it out....no exceptions.  The cutting table is cleared of all clutter, and the machines are all plugged in and ready to go.  The trash can has even been emptied, and my mp3 player is all charged up as well.

So, I sat down tonight to watch a little football(Packers and Bengals), and checked out my Facebook page to find my very pregnant daughter talking about how today has been a major cleaning and organizing day.  Yeah, you moms out there know what THAT means....nesting.  A major fore-runner of the onset of labor.  But wait, just last week her ob-gyn told her she could expect to go a couple of weeks later that her mid-January date.  Hmmmm.  Sounds like she may have been mistaken, or else, Julie is trying to force the issue.  Well, as they used to say in the old Bonzai TV Game Show...."Place bets now" :)

Wishing you all a very Joyous 2014.