How to Make a Pleated Dust Skirt

I am going to TRY to teach you how to do this.

But I've got two things working against me.

1) I can't find my glasses

2) It's really not that easy to explain

.....but I'm gonna try!

First of all, I found this fabric at Ocho for 3.99 a yard.  I got 5 yards which was more than enough.

20 bucks for a dust skirt.  Seriously?  You can't get one at Kmart for that!

Here we go.  The big thing is you need a lot of room....which I didn't have, so I had to improvise.

You need to do some figuring first

lay your fabric out and cut your length.  I needed 300" by 19"  If you have to make a seam (like I did} make sure it lands inside one of the pleats.

now turn the hem under 1/4" and press

Now turn it under 2" and press

I used a hem stitch and it works wonderfully if your machine has a hem stitch.  If not you either have to hem it by hand (ick) or just sew it where the stitching will be seen

this is what a hem stitch looks like

Doesn't this look fun?

find the center of the first side and mark it.  Now make two 3" pleats. that will equal 12",  Hope that makes sense.  What you are doing is turning the fabric under 3" on each side. So each pleat will equal 6". Have I totally confused you yet?

this is the back side of the pleats

now measure the other half distance of one side and mark.  In this case that would be 1/2 of 79".  Measure 39 1/2" from the middle of the first pleat and make another pleat.  Repeat this process until you get all five pleats.

now lay a sheet down the size of the top of the box spring.  This is where I quit taking pics.  Sorry!

Pin the dust skirt all the way around, leaving the top open.

then lift up the mattress (king size by the way) all by yourself and put it on!

Have a great day y'all!

kb