Summer's Crib Bedding

So I got this crazy idea about 5 months ago that I was going to sew the bumpers and dust ruffle for Summer's crib. We didn't have a lot of money to spend on new bedding, and Brian was telling me to just use Logan's. (Yeah right! No way am I going to use boy bedding. Summer could be my only chance at pink and ruffles.) So I I found some beautiful damask material online, ordered it, and made big plans. When it came I was so afraid to cut in to my beautiful material that it sat there for a month until my talented sister came in to town. She and my husband (I know, it's sad that my husband is better at this stuff than me) cut out everything for me after I walked away frustrated at my failed attempts to cut a straight line. After my sister left it took me another 3 months to actually sew the bumpers. But I eventually did using this crib tutorial by Leanne Barlow for the bumpers and they turned out fabulous. It was pretty simple, with the hardest part being finding the time and motivation to do it. The only thing I altered was the width of the ties. I cut them to be about 2" wide, and I honestly could have cut them smaller. I like a tiny tie better then a big tie, but that's the beauty of sewing something yourself, you can make it your own.

The finished product. Summer looks so pleased with my work!

I waited until my Mum came to visit this past month to finally finish the dust ruffle. My sister and I made up our own pattern for this and I wanted my mum's guidance on the ruffling since I'd never done it before. It was actually really simple and easy, but based on how intimidated I was by it I thought I'd put up a quick little tutorial to show all you non-sewers* out there that you can do it! Sometimes I read tutorials with a lot of "sewing lingo" in it and I get totally overwhelmed calling my sister to help me decipher it or googling different terms. So I'm going to try and keep the sewing lingo out of this.

Here it goes, bear with me it's my first tutorial!

Step 1:

You'll need to cut a large piece of white muslin (or another cheap white material) to lay underneath the crib mattress. Measure the length and width of the crib and cut a piece with those measurements. Make sure to add a 1/4" seam allowance to each measurement.

Step 2:

Cut the skirt pieces. You'll only need 3, for the front and 2 sides. Decide which material you want on the top and which on the bottom of the skirt.

The front:

Use the long measurement from the above step and double it. Cut a piece that is this measurement by 13" long for the top material, and one that is this measurement by 6.25" for the bottom.

The sides:

Use the shorter measurement from step 1 and double it. Cut two more pieces of material that are this measurement by 13" and 6.25". 

Repeat this for the other side.

Step 3:

Now you need to sew the top and bottom pieces together. Put them together with the right sides facing each other and pin along the side that you want to sew (this will be where the two panels will connect). If you have a pattern on your material make sure you have the pattern facing the right way up. Once you're all pinned, sew down that side. I'm not sure if it's common knowledge for everyone, but don't forget to backstich or else your seams will unravel.
Do the same for the other two sides of the crib.

Step 4:
Once you have sewn the two materials together you need to hem them. I like to start somewhere in the middle of the fabric. Fold the fabric down a little bit

and then fold it again.

 

 Once you have it at a place you like, pin it in place. Do this in several places along the entire edge.

Once you have it all pinned in place. Sew it. I sewed it so the material was lined up with the edge of my presser foot. Do this step for the 3 sides of the skirt that will NOT be sewn to the muslin. Repeat for all 3 skirt pieces.

Step 5:
Now that we're all hemmed up it's tim to ruffle! Don't worry about this. I was really intimidated by the ruffling but it's pretty simple and hard to mess up (although I did mess up a couple times, but we fixed it and moved on).
In order to ruffle you need to sew two lines down the edge of your fabric that will be attached to the muslin. Make sure to run a loose stitch. My sewing machine defaults to a 2.2 stitch and I changed it to a 4.5 stitch for this step. It will be really hard, if not impossible, to pull the fabric into a ruffle if you leave it on a normal stitch. Make sure there is a decent amount of thread hanging out from each end of the fabric after you sew. Do not backstitch for this step.

 Once your two lines are sewn, find the middle of the muslin and the piece you are ruffling and pin them together (right sides facing eachother) at the middle.

 Now we ruffle. We'll ruffle from either side until we get to the middle. Pick a side, find the threads for the top stitch and pull. Don't pull the bottom threads, just leave those guys alone.

 Pull until your fabric is roughly the same length as the muslin. Spread out the ruffles so they are pretty even across the fabric and pin it to the muslin.

 Repeat for the other side.

Step 6:
Everything should be pinned in to place now.

Change your sewing machine back to a normal stitch (mine was 2.2) and sew the ruffle to the muslin. Make sure the muslin is lying straight underneath so you don't sew it together in weird places. I had to pick some seams a couple times here because I did that. 

Now you should have a beautiful ruffle! Repeat steps 5 & 6 for the other two sides and you have your dust ruffle.

The finished product. Yours will look something like this too! Happy sewing :)

*How do you write sewer? Is it the same as the underground sewage tunnels? Cause I keep reading sue-er instead of sew-er.