DIY Bedskirt Tutorial

Sophie will be inheriting the queen size bed from our guest room which we are converting into a nursery. Do you know how hard it is to find a PINK queen-size bedskirt? There are tons to choose from for twin and full size beds but I guess most little girls don't have a queen size. Luckily I found a solution.

When I saw the ruffles on this duvet cover peaking out at me from the linens section in the thrift store, I could not resist. When I got it home and realized that it was the exact same pink in Sophie's "big girl" bedding, it was too good to be true. So I decided to transform this duvet into a bedskirt.



I was hoping I could get away with simply cutting / stitching the corners and not having to construct the bedskirt from scratch but no such luck. It was about 1" too short on each side and 2" short in the front, and the corners hung down several inches below the sides and front. That wasn't going to work. So out came the scissors and the sewing machine. 

The duvet was double sided as it had a pocket to insert a comforter, so I had to pull out the seam ripper and remove one side of the fabric. (And now I have lots of extra pink fabric for making who knows what!) I know it's unlikely that most people will be converting duvet covers into bedskirts, but the steps below could also be applied if you are using a regular sheet. 

I wanted a 14" drop on the skirt, which is pretty standard for most beds. So I cut up 16" up from the bottom of the ruffle around both sides and the front to allow for serging and a large 1" to 1.5" seam allowance. I wanted to have extra that could be let out in the event that the drop was too short. Better safe than sorry! 

This is what the duvet cover looked like at this point:

In order to eliminate the fact that the corners were too long, and also to be able to add inverted box pleats at both corners, I cut the duvet cover at both front corners, as shown below.

 

Then I removed the ruffle at the cut corners. 

 After serging both cut edges to prevent fraying, I pinned right sides together and sewed a straight stitch to reattach.

This does leave a seam of course, but is necessary in order for the skirt to be the same length all the way around. Now you will have one long, continuous piece of 16" high fabric. 


Then I cut another sheet (also a thrift store find!) to the dimensions of the box spring + 1.5" for serging and 1" seam allowance. Mine measured 59.5" wide & 79" long.

After serging the sheet, I laid it in place on the box spring. (Of course before I did this I had to remove the mattress which probably wasn't a good idea considering that I am 7 months pregnant. It was heavier than I thought!) 

Next I marked the middle of the front of the sheet and the middle of the front of the skirt with a pin.

I matched up the middles and pinned right sides together 1" up across the front, stopping about 6" before the corner. I placed the pins parallel to the edge of the sheet / skirt so that I was able to flip the skirt down and check the length.  

Then I started at the top (headboard side), matched the edge of the sheet to the edge of the skirt, and continued pinning right sides together 1" up, once again stopping just sort of the corner. 

At this point the skirt was pinned all around the sheet except for the corners.

To make the inverted box pleats, you have to work from the right side of the fabric. An inverted box pleat is formed by two equal folds of fabric folded toward one another so they meet at the center of the pleat on the right side of the fabric. If you had an abundance of fabric, there are calculated ways to make a box pleat but in this case I simply folded the excess skirt fabric at each corner towards each other until they met, making sure that the pleat was the same depth on both sides. I pinned the pleat in place but did NOT pin to the sheet that I was using for the middle of the bed skirt.

I sewed the pleat with a basting stitch using a 1/2" seam, then put the skirt back on the bed and pinned a 1" hem for the corners as I'd done for the rest of the skirt.  

After checking to make sure I was happy with the length on all sides, I hemmed all around the skirt using a 1" seam allowance so I would have some wiggle room just in case.

And here is the finished product! (Not ironed and at 1 am.) Better pictures will follow once we get Sophie's new room together.

Not bad for $2.99, huh? The only queen size pink bed skirt I could find was $50!

I have several other bedroom / nursery projects in the works, including curtains, throw pillows, crib sheet, and something to go over the crib. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Here are some pictures of the bedskirt in Sophie's room. Go HERE to see her big girl room reveal!

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