My hubby graciously gave up his office so we could have a guest room instead. He's been carrying his laptop around the house and working where ever he sat and we both realized that he really didn't need a whole room to himself. Especially since he wants to be out where our family is sitting.
I'm going to cover the whole process of re-doing the room but right now I just want to show off the new bed skirt.
This cotton gingham is one of my favorite staples and it's available at Walmart for under 4.00 a yard! I just cut it into 8 strips 14 3/4" long (x width of fabric) and sewed them together making a very very long piece of fabric. I didn't bother with serging my seams or anything fancy since nobody will ever see the underside of the bed skirt. I just pressed the seams open which made the next step so much easier.
I used this 3/16" rolled hem foot on my Juki 2010Q and had all 336 inches hemmed in just a few minutes! If I had done this the usual way it would have taken hours to double fold and iron and hem all of this. Seriously, tools are everything!
Then, since there was so much ground to cover, I decided to try the gathering method where you sew a zigzag stitch over a thread and then pull the thread. It worked like a charm. I used a very thick utility thread for pulling so it wouldn't break. It was perfect. I can't recommend this method for garment sewing because it's kind of loosey goosey and hard to distribute the gathers evenly, but for something big like this it was ideal.
For the base fabric I just bought a 4.00 twin flat sheet at Walmart and actually snipped and ripped it so I'd get nice straight lines (60 X 80). I moved my furniture to have room to work and it didn't take long to have everything gathered and pinned in place (lots of pins just to be safe!).
I rounded the corners slightly since that's the shape of the corners on the bed frame.
Pretty good for a days work. We are stashing my hubby's outdoors and boy scout supplies under there, which gives me room in the closet for guest supplies like blankets and towels. I'm happy.
Poppy is happy. Perplexed, but happy.
My daughter's quilt is happy (the fabric was a wedding gift from Bari J.). I'll be sad when my daughter takes it back. I'll just keep quiet about it so she forgets.
