Update: The Nursery is finally finished!  Hop over and check out the full reveal!

I am slowly but surely getting all my to-do’s for the nursery done.  And one of those was to get a crib skirt made for our crib.  So here was the before. 

Now – the reason I decided to make a crib skirt was because I couldn’t find any bedding that I liked.  I looked forever trying to find something in my inspiration colors.  And when I couldn’t find anything premade – I started looking at fabric.  Luckily – I found the adorable “Wild and Wooly” fabric at Joann’s and I decided to make some of the bedding myself.  The first thing I started was the crib skirt.  My plan was to just do a simple straight skirt all the way around that way I wouldn’t need a pattern or anything fancy!

For starters – I ironed all the fabric and used just a smidgen of starch to keep it a little crisp.  I find that helps with getting straight even cuts.  Then I cut out plain piece of muslin to the size of our mattress.  Which was really simple because we got the mattress on Amazon – so I just looked up the dimensions there.  Way simpler than measuring it myself!  I added a half an inch on either side to use for my seam.  Next, I measured from the bottom of the mattress to the floor to figure out how long my skirt pieces needed to be (at the highest level – that was 16 inches so I added an additional 1 inch so that when I hemmed either side I had a 1/2 inch seam.  Then I ran into a problem. 

I wanted the stripes to hang vertically – but the fabric was only 43 inches wide.  Which as you can see is just a smidgen too short for my piece of muslin on the long side.  So I decided to stich on some additional fabric on either side and then do pleats to “hide” my seams.  Of course that meant I needed to make it longer than necessary to make the pleats.  I decided to do three pleats – one in the middle and the one on either side.

To do each pleat – I picked a mid-point and and overlapped the fabric by an inch on either side.  Pretty simple – but it works! 

See how it makes a nice pleat?

Once I got all the skirt pieces cut and laid out – I hemmed the three sides that wouldn’t be attached to the base muslin.  Next, I attached them to the muslin.  This is how the final piece looked.

The final product?  Check out the close up below.  I love it!  I will show you the “whole” thing once we get the nursery totally finished!  Right now the whole room looks like a baby shower threw up in there – I have stuff everywhere! 

If you are thinking about making a crib skirt – I would say go for it!  It is pretty simple – the whole thing is just straight seams so it is a really an easy beginner sewing project!  

So what do you think?  Will you try one out on your own?  Are you loving the colors as much as me?  I am sooooo in love with them!

Linking this to

Tutorials and Tips Tuesday with Beth @ Stories of A to Z
All Things Inspired with Robin @ All Things Heart and Home
Make it Yours Day with Carolyn @ My Backyard Eden
Transformation Thursday with Gina @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Metamorphosis Monday with Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch
Tip Me Tuesday with Laurie @ Tip Junkie

Get Your Craft On with Kim @ Today’s Creative Blog

I had the best birthday weekend!  For starters – some girlfriends took me out for dinner Friday night and we had a great time and lots of laughs!  Then on Saturday morning – I got up and headed out to meet up with some local mid-Tennessee bloggers!  Some were old friends and some are now new friends! 

Photo via Angie @ Country Chic Cottage – Pictured Jennifer, Kristen, Me, Gina, and Tobi

I got to hang out with this great group of ladies that included Gina @ The Shabby Chic Cottage, Kristen @ Ahoy Graphics, Angie @ Country Chic Cottage, Tobi @ Dr. Baby Mama Drama, Jennifer @ Designs by Jennifer, and Deneen @ Dreaming in Color.  We ate, talked blog tips and tricks, and all learned from each other.  I learned I need to bring a camera and that I can’t make silly faces around Angie – she will post pictures!

We headed out to get our shop on next!  Of course I scouted out a local Goodwill next to a Hobby Lobby on the way in!  The Goodwill turned out to be a good stop for me!  I got this adorable faux tin stamped mirror for $7.99.  I am thinking a nice coat of white spray paint and a little rub and buff will make this into a beauty! 

And then I picked up a few more frames for my gallery wall.  These will just need a quick shot of silver spray paint and they will be ready to go up on the wall!  The larger frames were just a $1.99 and the lil one was just 99 cents!  Love it!

I had to scoot – but the other ladies stayed around to get the hook up on some fantastic burlap coffee bags!  But I had to run some other errands and then get back to the house so I could gussy up for a date night with the hubby!  We had dinner and then saw Water for Elephants.  I loved the book so I was a little nervous that the movie wouldn’t end up as well – but I was not disappointed!  I would highly recommend that book for your summer reading list if you haven’t picked it up yet. 

So that was that!  What about you guys?  Get into anything fun this weekend?  I wanna know!

Linking this to

Thrifty Treasures with Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality

I just loved reading all the ways you guys honored your mom on Mother’s Day!  There are a ton of thoughtful people out there – makes me feel good to become a mom in eight weeks!  But let’s get down to business and announce the winners – we have a lot of prizes to get through!

Let’s start with the prepaid card packs!  There were two up for grabs and the winners were entries #79 Andrew McKinley and #58 FaithPlusNothing. 

Andrew made a card for his mom this year (and said it did look like one made in the 2nd Grade!) and FaithPlusNothing thought about her mom who passed in 2003.  Sometimes it is the thoughtful things that count the most isn’t it!  Congrats you guys!

Now the winner of the Recordable Book was #16 – CraftyMama!  She said she loved the Counting Kisses book below and that she was hoping to honor her mom and mother-in-law with a new grandbaby!!  I know how that feels!  Congrats on winning the book! 

Give a big congrats to all our winners!