Cheat's DIY Cot Skirt - With Pom-Poms!

One of the things on my 2014 To Do List was sew a cot skirt for Miss M's nursery. Under her cot is the perfect space to hide the baby bath she no longer fits into, as well as some of her larger toys. The problem is that it drives me CRAZY every time I walk into her room and see the disorder living under there - my solution... hide it. There are a million and one cot skirt tutorials around, so I've decided to be super lazy and create what I've called a cot 'apron'. It's basically a cot skirt with only the front panel.

Miss M's cot is flanked on one side by her change table and the other two sides by walls, so no one will ever know that I've been a lazy cheap-skate and only done the front panel. You may remember the nursery from my Swinging Bird Tutorial - this is what it looks like at the moment.

This project is really easy and is something you can whip it up in an afternoon. It only involves straight line sewing, so its definately a good one for beginners.

Measurements

Remove the cot mattress and measure the base of the cot as well as the drop to the floor. My measurements were 129cm long, 58cm deep and 47cm high. Next add 4cm to each of these measurements (2cm for each side) to allow for hems/seams. My new measurements were 133cm long, 62cm deep and 51cm high.

Material

I decided to mix things up a little bit and create my skirt out of two contrasting fabrics - turquoise and hot pink - the colour scheme for Miss M's nursery. In order to save costs I also decided to make the part that sits under the mattress from plain white cotton fabric, because its much cheaper and wont be seen. I also picked up some pom-pom ribbon, but more on that later.

If you're smart you will choose fabric that is the width of your cot length. I did not take my own advice and had to do a little bit of patching together to make up the width. In this instance, instead of making a seam down the middle to make my fabric longer, I opted to make two seams off-centre so that they weren't as obvious. As shown below, simply pin your fabric pieces together, right sides facing, sew, open and press.

Get Sewing

Once you've cut all your pieces to size, sew your two contrasting materials together along the long edge, right sides facing each other. Press open your seam.

Then sew your coloured fabric piece to your white cotton base along the long edge, right sides together. Again, press open your seam.

At this point you should have one large rectangle. Next hem around the three sides of your rectangle shown below, leaving your bottom edge un-hemmed.

Once this is done, place your apron onto the cot base and pin your bottom hem to the length you would like it to hang. Now sew the bottom hem.

When I'm sewing this type of hem, I like to make a neat point on the edges of my material. In order to do this:

Step 1 - Iron your hem folds into the material.
Step 2 - Fold the corner in, down to the second hem fold line.
Step 3 - Fold the edge of your material along the first hem line down to the second hem line.
Step 4 - Fold again, along the second hem line and you have a nice neat point that is ready for sewing.

(Please disregard the paint on my fingers - I've always got a project on the go that involves paint!)

In order to hold the apron in place on the cot, I used some left over ribbon I had, cutting 4 x 20cm pieces. To determine where to locate your ties, place your apron back onto the cot base, fold your ribbon in half and pin it in line with four evenly spaced cot bars. Sew the ribbon into place.

Now for the cherry on the top, lay your cot apron out and pin the pom-pom ribbon along the length of the material where the two contrasting colours meet.

Sew this into place, cut off the excess ribbon and your cot apron is done - I told you it was easy!

With all my left-over material I'm considering making a cover for the change table!

Linking to:
Redoux
Finding Fabulous
Beyond the Picket Fence
Someday Crafts