Drop Cloth Bed skirt

Back to my lack of storage....

 Sorry hope you don't get too tired of hearing me complain about this fact...

 I have to have storage bins under my bed and because of this I have been in the need of good bed skirt.  I did actually have one that I bought a long time ago but it never seemed to hang down long enough or was always getting bunched up.  Plus, it was the wrong color and just time for an update.  

Every once in a while I would look at a pattern for a bed skirt and think about making one.  The thing that always stopped me was when I'd get to the part where you needed  yards and yards of fabric that goes UNDER the mattress.  I always felt that was such a waste of fabric!  

So here is my quick and inexpensive way of making a bed skirt without wasting all that fabric under the mattress.  

All I used was:

 Paint canvas drop cloth  

a sewing machine

and my new favorite thing Velcro

That's it!

I apologize I can not remember how big of a drop cloth I bought.  I was sure I saved the packaging the canvas came in so when I was writing this up I could for sure tell you.  Of course I can't find it!  I'll I can say is I bought mine at home depot and I bought the one that was close to 20 dollars. I bought that big thinking I could make a few different projects with it.  Wow! It ended up being a TON of fabric.  But this is awesome heavy duty fabric! 

First, I measured the length and width of my box spring, then measured from the top of my box spring to how far down I wanted the bed skirt to hang.  Then added a 1/2 in for seam allowance. I cut out two long strips for the sides and one strip for the width. I cut the side strips a few inches longer so I could do pleats around the corners. When I was cutting out my strips I tried to keep the existing hem as much as possible.  Once it came time to sew hems this was a huge time saver!  Before sewing hems though, I sewed one side strip to the width strip. Then the width strip to the last side strip.  You are then left with one long strip of fabric.

  

I was able to make it so the bottom of the bed skirt was all existing hem so all I had to sew was up the ends and across the top. My hem was 1/4 in and I only turned the fabric down once.  Then, I did a little mock run and pinned it to the box spring just to be sure it wrapped around like I wanted it to.  Plus, then I was able to figure out where the pleats needed to go and where to cut the slit on the corners so it would lay flat over the bed frame.  Then I took it off the box spring, sewed the pleats and sewed a hem around my slit on the corners.    

Then I got industrial strength Velcro and used about 5 in strips.  Place one side of the Velcro at each corner of the box spring and the other side of Velcro on the inside of the bed skirt. 

I tried to keep the bed skirt pulled nice a tight as I was connecting the Velcro.  I did end up going back and adding an extra strip of Velcro in the center of the side of the box spring. 

That's it!

This was an awesome afternoon project, came together very fast. I love how heavy this fabric is, it makes it hang nicely.  Now, I don't have to worry about the storage bins under my bed being seen.

I love it! 

Happy Monday to you all!

Chelsea