Getting crafty, part 3

Having Sandi in town this weekend also gave me the chance to spend time in the nursery and to fixate on a couple of projects that needed to be done.

At my Florida shower I was generously gifted with several gift cards, two of which were promptly spent on the ruffle curtains from my registry.  I already had two basic sheer panels from Ikea a few weekends ago, and decided to sew the sheers to the curtain panel to allow for more light blockage.  I may someday opt for blackout shades, but for now I like the softness of layered sheers over wooden blinds.

The process was simple, just pinning the sheers to the back of the ruffled panels and sewing one straight seam across, under one of the ruffles to hide my often wonky lines.  The sheers were both longer and wider than the ruffled panel, but thanks to their lightness I was able to just fold the edges over without any perceptible differences from the front.  All in all in took me about an hour to pin, sew, remove errant stitches that messed with the ruffle, and hang.

Bad picture, but voila!

The other project was the crib skirt that I meant to do a couple of weeks ago.  I found the fabric at a craft warehouse in Durham (thanks, Nikki!) and thought it was the perfect combination of colors, pattern, and price ($4 for 2 yards, heck yes!)

Does it stand out to you like it did to me?

For the design I did my best to copy the one I originally had on my registry before I decided it was too $$, with a simple box pleat at the front.  I also scoured Pinterest for DIY tips, and of course found some great ideas.  I measured all the sides and the height needed, cut the fabric into strips, hemmed the sides, worked with Sandi to create the box pleat in the middle, and sewed the strips into one long piece to wrap around the crib mattress base.  I only sewed three sides since no one will see the back, and allowed enough length to at least cover all four corners.  I used Velcro strips to attach the skirt to the mattress, and boom!  All done!  The whole process took the rest of the weekend since I encountered some hiccups (measurements a little off, support beam in the way), but I think all things considered, it turned out pretty nicely.

The box pleat is not as neat as I would like it, so I may end up ironing it when I'm nesting

All in all, not too shabby!

One of the things that I love the most about this project is that the crib itself hides lots of little flaws, and its way far away from eye level, so perfection was not a must.  A true gift to this amateur seamstress!