DIY: Ruffled Bedskirt

"I CAN SEW! I CAN SEW! I CAN SEW!"

I felt like shouting it from the roof top when I finished my first huge sewing project. 

But really, I don't know much about sewing. I DO know how to sew a straight hem and I came up with an easy way to 'ruffle'. That's a start, right? 

When I made a base for my bed to raise the mattress (read about that HERE), my bedskirt was suddenly too short for my liking. (That is pictured HERE). I fell in love with all the "ruffly" things I'd been seeing on the internet. And as usual, my project is about 4 months late in the DIY world. But, I finished it, and I love it!

My inspiration was this throw I saw on Pinterest.

(via)

When I originally read the instructions from diydesign, I decided to make mine a little different.

Here's what you'll need:

1 Flat King sized sheet

3-4 Spools of thread

An existing Queen sized bedskirt

And, of course, a sewing machine. 

(Mine was given to me as a wedding gift over 8 years ago!)

And here's how:

It's important to measure several times and cut once. Otherwise, you'll be heading to the store for a second sheet!

This flat sheet was 108 inches x 102 inches.
I wanted to have 4 tiered ruffles on each side of the bed skirt (12 ruffles total).
I also knew the ruffles needed to be 6 inches hemmed so I could over lap the ruffles and have a 19 inch long bedskirt.

The strips for the ruffles were cut about 8 inches each. And they were kept the original 108 inches long from the sheet I bought. I was able to keep the original hem of the sheet on the ends of my strips.

To hem the two rough sides of each strip, I folded the end a 1/2 inch over and ironed.

Then I folded the ironed 1/2 inch over again and ironed.

Checking as I went to make sure my strips all measured 6 inches.

Then on to sewing the hem!

This is where my method takes a less scientific route. My mother-in-law showed me the 'right way' to ruffle something. 

And then I knew why she thought I was crazy to make 12 ruffles for a bedskirt. 

If I did the ruffles the 'right way', I would never be posting this completed DIY bedskirt!!!

So, enter the 'Lindsey Way'. 

(The 'let's get this over within this month method'.)

I started with the very top ruffle and laid it on the current bedskirt. (Yes, I took over my entire living room floor.)

I 'dispersed' the 108 inch strip evenly over the current 80 inch bedskirt and pinned the ruffle on the bedskirt.

To the sewing machine!
Here's where it gets technical. (wink, wink.)
I pinched, folded, and sewed as I went across each ruffle strip.

Let me insert a little ruffle note here:
I did not want these ruffles to look like a little girl's room should. I was going for minimal ruffles. And because I was having 4 tiers of ruffles on top of each other, I knew this amount of ruffle would be enough!


I repeated the 'Lindsey Way' of ruffling 3 more times to finish one side of the bedskirt.
After placing the top ruffle along the seam of the original bedskirt, the second ruffle was placed 4 1/2 inches below the original seam, the third ruffle was placed 9 inches below the original seam and the fourth was placed 13 inches below the original seam.

Then, it's on to the other long side and finally, I did the foot of the bedskirt last.

I did not need the ruffles for the foot of the bed to be as long as the sides. I ended up cutting 23 inches off, making the strip on the foot of the bed 84 inches.

(Here's the math for that:

108 inch strip - 23 inches cut off - 1 inch for a new hem on one side = 84 inch strip)

And after a long weekend of cutting, folding, ironing, folding, ironing, hemming, pinning, sewing....

WHA-LA!!!!!
A DIY 4 tiered ruffled bedskirt!