An Almost No-sew Ruffled Crib Skirt

Happy Saturday friends!  It's been busy around here the past few days.  I'm very close to finishing blog posts about all of the projects in our nursery.  I really wanted to have today's post completed yesterday.  I was working on it five minutes here and five minutes there, or whenever I had a few minutes to myself really.  Sometime late last night, I finally gave up and accepted my reality.  Completing this blog entry was going to have to wait another day.

For this post, I wanted to share how I made the no-sew ruffled crib skirt for Charlotte's crib bedding.  I feel like every time I share a no-sew project, I shame the world of excellent seamstresses everywhere!  Truth be told, I just don't sew.  I will say now that I have kids of my own, sewing is on my list of hobbies to learn.

Yesterday, I shared the no-sew crib bumper for our baby girl's nursery in this post.  I explained that I made them the exact same way I made my twin boys' crib bumpers.  That tutorial for my boy bumpers can be found here.

For the crib skirt in Charlotte's nursery, I used the same concept as when I made the boys no-sew crib skirts.  As in, I made three pieces, a front and two sides, and then used adhesive Velcro to attach it to the crib frame to make it look like a traditional crib skirt. 

The difference between the boys' crib skirts and Charlotte's crib skirt, is that the crib skirts for the boys were incredibly easy to make, because the finished product was straight crisp lines, made with a thick chevron material. You can find the tutorial for those crib skirts here. Using the Heat n Bond and a hot iron to make those crib skirts was easy.  Overall,  I was very happy with my no-sew version of a copycat navy/chevron Carousel Design crib skirt. 

For my girly crib skirt, I wanted ruffles and lace!  I discovered that no-sewing a ruffled crib skirt was going to have challenges.  For one, this is not completely no-sew, hints the title of this post.  I did have to do a little hand stitching, but nothing fancy, time-consuming, or with the use of a sewing machine.  Secondly, I could not use my go-to no-sew technique for this crib skirt, my secret weapon that is Heat-N-Bond.  To be honest, I pretty much "MacGyvered" this entire project, and guessed my way through each step. 

Considering the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing, I'm happy with how this crib skirt turned out.  I achieved a ruffled crib skirt, without using a sewing machine and I was still able to use the Velcro to stick it to the crib frame. 

Here's how I did it......

Step One:  Choose three different layers of fabric.  I purchased all of my fabric during a sale at Hobby Lobby.
 
Step Two:  Decide which order you want your layers of fabric to be, and tear or cut the fabric into 4 inches for the top layer, 8 inches for the middle layer and 12 inches for the bottom layer.

Note:   You will not have to hem the bottoms of each piece of fabric if you are cutting in from the sides of the fabric.  When you buy fabric by the yard, the sides will already have clean finished stiches or a hem.  Save yourself time, and let that be the bottoms of your ruffles.  Buy enough fabric for the length of your crib plus 12-18 inches for pleats.  Then you can divide that fabric in length, using half of it for the front of the crib and half of it for the sides of the crib.  I know, I know.  Now would be a great time for a diagram, but my attempt of explaining in typed words will have to do.

Step Three:  Cut a piece of thread the exact length of the front of the crib.  This is where I really wish I had video to show you what I did.  Basically, I hand-sewed the three pieces of fabric together at the top of the crib skirt, using a basting stich.  Description can be found here.  Unlike a traditional basting stich, I did lock the stich at the beginning and end with a knot.  The purpose of stich is not for beauty or perfection.  It's simply to keep the three pieces of fabric together in order to move onto the next step.

Step Four:   Hand stitch a pleat every six inches or so. 

This doesn't have to look beautiful or be exact.  I did not measure, but rather I eyeballed the spacing of my pleats.

Step Five:  Hot glue a piece of ribbon to the top of the crib skirt....

 ....and to the back of the crib skirt.

Step six:  Cut pieces of Velcro that are adhesive on both sides.  Every few inches Stick one side of the Velcro to the mattress frame in the crib....

 ....and the other side to the back of the crib skirt.

Step seven:  Repeat the above steps for the two sides of the crib. If your crib is against a wall, you do not need to make one for the back.

And that's my version of an almost no-sew ruffled crib skirt!  For those of you who do sew, this would be just as easy to make if not easier using a needle and thread and a sewing machine!  I just made the cheater's version, that's all! 

While I have made no-sew crib skirts and bumpers for all three kids, my mother-in-law does sew, and she has made all three kids special crib quilts.  That's something that I would never try to no-sew.  She not only makes them a quilt upon my request, but she even cross-stiches all of the grandchildren a special blanket when they are born.  She's obviously much better with the needle and thread than I am! I'm thankful that she has made our children such beautiful childhood sentiments for them to enjoy!