If you've been roaming the bedroom section in any department store lately, you may have been a little underwhelmed. You may like one or two parts, but as a whole - blah. Or maybe you found your dream bed set, but saw the price tag and cried a little inside (this happen to me last week). Well, set those worries behind because little updates can add a new life to any bedroom. I've been looking everywhere for a floor length bed skirt that matches my furniture...that I painted purple. Okay, so maybe expecting to find the perfect bed skirt on a tiny budget was a bit high, but a girl can dream. How to solve this problem? Goodwill. I managed to find about 6 yards of sheer fabric in the perfect color purple. YES! For $6. Double YES!
You wouldn't believe how easy it is to make your own dust ruffle. It's even easier if you already have an old one hanging around. Time to update the Boudoir with some savvy sewing. Here's how:
Supplies
6 yards of fabric for a full size bed. Add 1.5 yards for each size larger, just to be safe.
Ruffler Foot or Gathering foot (highly recommended)
An old bed skirt (if you don't have one you're willing to cut up, you can get one from Goodwill. Or, you can measure the dimensions of your box spring, add seam allowance, and cut muslin to match.)
Needle matching fabric weight
Step 1
Fold you fabric in half hot dog style and cut up the middle so you have 2 long pieces of fabric. Hem the two short sides by turning the fabric under twice.
Step 2
Use a ruffler setting of 6 and a stitch length of 3.0 to make your gathers. If you're using a gathering foot, use a 3.0 stitch length as well. Ruffle / Gather both piece of fabric.
Step 3
Using your seam ripper, take the old dust ruffle apart. All we want to keep is the white square that goes under the mattress. Once you get a few stitches pulled out, you can just use your hands to pull the seam apart. I find this step particularly cathartic if you are stressed.
Step 4
Pin the ruffled fabric to the white square from the old bed skirt, right sides together. Start the pinning at the headboard end. The fabric should end in the middle of the footboard end. Repeat with other ruffled piece.
Tip: When you get to the corner, just slightly curve the ruffled fabric over the point.
You want the two ends to overlap each other in the center of the foot board area.
Step 5
Sew where you pinned using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.
Step 6
There are two ways to hem the bed skirt. You can either put the dust ruffle on the box spring and pin the hem or use your measuring tape. Whichever method works for you is fine.
If you want to use your measuring tape, place the measuring tape in between your mattress and box spring. You want to tuck it in a little bit because the white square of the bed skirt doesn't extend to the edge of the box spring. Tuck it in about 1 inch. Let the measuring tape fall to the floor and take note of the measurement. Mine was 23 inches. Make sure to add extra if you plan to turn the hem under.
I used a rolled hem on my serger to finish my hem, but you can finished the hem any way you like. If you do use a serger, I suggest a rolled hem using embroidery or nylon thread in the Upper Looper for a nice shine.
That's all there is to it! It's so easy, I'm thinking of changing my bed skirt for each season. I can just see the Christmas fabric now!
