baby room: crib skirt decisions

The crib skirt. DIY it! I swear, there's no other way to go.

Why would we try to make one for ourselves? Simple. Price and peculiarity. Every bedding set we looked at was a compromise in what we liked. We'd hear ourselves saying, "Well, that's not too bad," or "That could work," and these babies (no pun intended) are $120-450 a set! Not to mention that the parts we found most pleasing to the eye were the bumper & quilt. Which you can't use because they could cause SIDS. Hello?! Why do companies even make them?!?

The thought of purchasing a set only to discard (or hang--not our style) the most colorful pieces left us with one happy option: make the crib skirt for less $$$ and more personal style.

Here's a glimpse at what we've done thus far. First, the crib and dresser are up in the room. Mom & Dad Shedd gave us the crib and dresser as our big baby gift, Dad Hawk helped deliver it, and Hawk put the whole thing together a couple weekends ago. Here's how it currently looks:

Yes, there is so much happening in that room right now! (Cue sarcastic music). Hawk has lovingly encouraged me to get going on the skirt since we're starting to worry about that whole "38 weeks is really full term" thingie...

Step One: Pick out a great but inexpensive fabric.

So I dropped by JoAnn Fabrics and chose only fabrics that were either $1.00 off per yard or 30% off total yardage. I went for shades of brown and green with pops of color. I'm partial to funky flowers, but as we do not know the sex of our firstborn (or second born, for that matter), Hawk gently reminds me we shouldn't get too carried away with flowers. That and he hates them.

With that said, we were able to agree on a number of great fabrics. I got a half-yard to a full yard of each depending on price, how much I thought Hawk would like it, and what I thought I could do with it if it wasn't chosen for the skirt. I hate wasting good fabric I've spent money on, so I knew if I bought any, I wanted to use it for something else later on.

Step Two: Hang them from the crib.

We hung our options from under the mattress down to the floor to get a real idea of how they would look in the final cut.

Here's my favorite flowered bugger:

But too girly in the event that Ace isn't a girl.

A great, funky flower fabric that Hawk actually really liked! 

But still too feminine for our possible-boy.


We had a few neutrals in taupes--some plain and some with white polka dots--which we originally thought would look pretty simplistic and relaxed. In the end, they just appeared boring. 


Hawk liked paisleys in another fabric, so we put this one in second place overall:

We lined up our favorites to compare. 

And chose this one for its semi-neutrals, pops of design, general funkiness, and brightness.

This past weekend, while Hawk worked outside I was able to get 3/4 of the way through making the skirt. It took about 90 minutes, but I was listening to music and taking my sweet time, so I think in total the entire creation could be done in 90 or less. We'll show you that process soon!

Happy Thursday!

Don't forget our little just-for-fun giveaway!

icj,

~j

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