Fitted Dust Ruffle

by Jamie Haas

2 Materials

$25

2 Days

Medium

Have you ever used a dust ruffle that slips around under the mattress? I came up with the idea of attaching a ruffle to a fitted sheet and, voila, no more slipping. I made one for a king size bed about 10 years ago and wanted another to cover the ugly beat-up wood on my antique double bed.

I found a bed-in-a bag set of this gold satin at Goodwill for less than $5. It was perfect because I had the same color duvet cover so I could use the pillow cases too. I already had the material for the ruffle that I took off the old one I made. It's a grey moire.

I measured the drop at 18".

I measured the ruffle while ironing it down to 18". This way I could sew the gather stitches straight.

I sewed two gather rows about an inch apart and a couple inches from the top with the iron crease in the middle. Then I stretched out the fitted sheet on the cardboard cutting pad - it fit perfectly.

I marked the center of the sheet and ruffle and lined them up. I washed the sheet but didn't bother to iron it because it won't show. I washed and ironed the ruffles.

Then I gathered both rows.

The lines in the sheet made it easier to sew the ruffles on straight. I tried to match it up with the middle of the gather rows.

I took off the mattress and stretched the fitted sheet over the corners.

Here's what it looks like from the side - pretty fancy! There's a curve in the baseboard so the ruffles are about 6" from the end. A store-bought dust ruffle would never work for this bed.