A dust ruffle catches the eye and brings top-to-bottom cohesion to your nursery décor. It’s as functional as it is decorative – especially when it hangs all the way to the floor. It does really help keep dust from beneath the crib, but it also allows for secret storage space. My daughter’s crib came with a rolling storage trundle, and the dust ruffle keeps it stylishly hidden from view. Dust ruffles look especially cute with a softly gathered edge.

A dust ruffle catches the eye and brings top-to-bottom cohesion to your nursery décor. It’s as functional as it is decorative – especially when it hangs all the way to the floor. It does really help keep dust from beneath the crib, but it also allows for secret storage space. My daughter’s crib came with a rolling storage trundle, and the dust ruffle keeps it stylishly hidden from view. Dust ruffles look especially cute with a softly gathered edge.

Gathering is fairly easy to do. In this project, you’ll find instructions for how to do this with a straight stitch. You can also use a sewing machine attachment called a Ruffler foot or a Gathering foot. For more tips, read our tutorial: Gathering & Ruffles Made Easy.

Our sample was made for a baby girl’s nursery, using the stunning Patty Young Andalucia collection. For information on where to buy, read Stylish Baby Nursery: Designing Bold Colors & Patterns. This article also includes suggestions for creating an alternate fabric palette that would work well for a boy’s nursery.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome Jem Gold 3)

Fabric and Other Supplies

• 7/8 yard 90″ wide Muslin (for center platform of crib)
• Fabric for 8 dust ruffle panels – 5¼ yards of 45” wide fabric: we used Patty Young’s Andalucia in Fire Mod Blooms
• All purpose thread
• See through ruler or yardstick
• Iron and ironing board
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Straight pins

You’ll notice our fabric, Fire Mod Blooms, is directional, which means the pattern of the fabric runs in a specific direction. Because of this, we’re going to cut the panels for our dust ruffles along the 45″ edge of the fabric (so the bloom print will run up and down; cutting it in the other direction would make the bloom print run sideways … not so pretty).

Our instructions use 90″wide muslin. When purchasing, pay attention to the writing on the side of the fabric bolt. There it will list the width of the fabric. Muslin comes in 36″, 38″, 44″, 45″, 90″, 108″ and 120″ widths (there may even be more, I got tired at 120″). You can buy bleached and unbleached muslin in different thread counts and qualities. This fabric is going to sit under the mattress of the crib, and is just hold the ruffles in place, so buy the cheapest you find. In a lot of instances, the quality of the fabric is of importance, but this is not one of those instances.

Getting Started

In order to calculate the length of the dust ruffle, you’ll need to measure your crib. We think it looks best when the ruffle reaches all the way to the floor. Most cribs have 4-5 height options, so you can adjust the height of the bars of the crib as your child gets older (ie., lower the mattress).

You can tackle these instructions with two options in mind. One, you can measure the distance of the bottom of the mattress to the floor from the lowest height setting and make the ruffle to this height. This way, the ruffle will never be too long. However, when the mattress is at its highest point, the ruffle will look kinda short and skimpy.

The second option is to measure the distance from the top-most setting, and then adjust the bottom hem (shorten it) as your child grows and you lower the mattress in the crib. If you’re making a nursery for a brand new baby, we suggest going with this highest setting. This is where you set the crib for a newborn, and since you spend the most time showing off your nursery while you’re pregnant or just after the baby is born, it will look the prettiest with a long, beautiful ruffle. Once you lower the settings, you’ll probably have a toddler to chase around, so you’ll be really tired and you won’t worry so much about how the dust ruffle looks! You can just take a pair of pinking shears to it at that point.

Here’s how to figure it out:

1. Measure the length you would like for the dust ruffle: adjust your crib to your preferred height setting and measure from the bottom of the mattress to the floor. (You may want to create a pattern piece for testing a ruffle. To do this, you can purchase extra muslin for testing lengths (buy one more yard) or you can use a large piece of fabric you have in your stash. Take the pattern testing piece into the nursery, and test it at different lengths to the floor to see which you like best. Once you find a length you like, measure it, and then follow the steps below).
2. Add 1″ to this measurement for your top seam and hem allowances. For our sample, we wanted a finished length of 22″, so our final length needed to be 23″.
3. Cut one panel to this height, cutting parallel to the 45″ edge of the fabric. Repeat to cut a total of eight panels.
   
4. Trim the muslin to create one piece that measures 54″ x 29½”. We will call this the ‘platform piece’ below. (This is the size of the center of the mattress platform. A platform size of 53″ x 28½” is fairly standard, but you may want to measure your crib before you cut, just in case. You add 1″ to the length and width measurements to account for seam allowances.)

At Your Sewing Machine & Ironing Board

Note: all measurements listed below are for our sample.

Join side panels

1. Each long side is made up of three panels. First sew two panels, right sides together and using a ½” seam, along the short sides (the 23″ side). Then, sew the third panel to the end in the same manner. You now have one long strip that is 23″ x 133″. If your fabric is directional like ours, make sure you have everything going the right way before you stitch the panels together. It would be sad to have one panel upside down.
   
2. Make the opposite side in the same manner.
3. Your remaining two panels are for each end (the head and the foot of the crib).

Hem the edges of the ruffles

1. For each of the FOUR Dust Ruffle panels, you need to finish the two sides and bottom edge with a simple double-turn hem. For each piece, turn under the right side of the fabric ¼” along ONE long edge. Press.
2. Turn under all three edges again another ¼” and edgestitch all around to create your double-turn ¼” hemmed edges.
   

Create the gathers

1. Set your sewing machine’s straight stitch length to long. On my machine this is anywhere from 6 to 8.
2. Locate one three-piece 133″ side panel. Stitch along the top edge of the fabric ½” in from the edge (½” being the standard seam allowance for home dec). Leave at least 4″ tails when you snip your top and bobbin thread. To make it easier to gather, we suggest making THREE gathering segments. Start and stop your stitching within each panel. Remember, do not back tack at the beginning or the end of your gathering stitch.
   
3. Now, stitch another row about ¼” in from the same unfinished fabric edge. Again, leave long tails when you snip your thread. Again, stitch in three segments (no back-tacking). Now you have two parallel rows of a long straight stitch. (When gathering, we like to make two rows of gathering stitches in case one thread breaks.)
   
4. For each panel segment, at the head of your stitching, tie the upper and lower threads together (by upper and lower, I mean the thread from the bobbin and the thread from the needle). This will keep your upper thread from pulling through.
5. Then, at the end of your stitching, GENTLY tug on the two TOP threads. Your fabric will slide along these threads like a curtain on a curtain rod, forming ruffles. Gently pull and adjust the gathers as you go until the gathers are even and your panel is approximately 18″. Tie a knot in your loose ends. After you’re done with all three panels, your overall length should be 54″ (down from the original 133″).
   
6. Repeat the steps above to finish the other 133″ side panel, gathering it down to 54″.
7. The two end panels can be finished in exactly the same manner, but since they are only one panel each, you’ll have just one segment of gathering along the top of each. You will be starting with a 45″ wide panel and gathering it down to 29½”.

Attach the ruffle

1. Locate one 54″ gathered side panel. If necessary, adjust the gathers again so they are evenly distributed across the top.
2. With right sides together, pin this piece along one long (54″) side of the 54″ x 29½” muslin platform piece.
3. Making sure to include the stitches used for gathering in the seam allowance, stitch in place.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 on the other long (54″) side.
5. Locate one 29½” gathered end panel. If necessary, adjust the gathers again so that they are evenly distributed across the top.
6. With right sides together, pin this piece along one short (29½”) side of the 54″ x 29½” muslin platform piece.
7. Making sure to include the stitches used for gathering in the seam allowance, stitch in place.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 on the other short (29½”) side.
9. Now it’s all ready for the new crib – too bad getting the baby to put inside the crib wasn’t this painless!