Your bed is never truly made until it has a dust ruffle to hide the bottom and legs of the bed. It's amazing what you can stash under your bed and then cover with either a box pleat or a gathered covering. There are a couple of ways to make a ruffle and attach it to the bed. You can make a box pleat or a gathered ruffle and attach both to the box spring with a fabric fastener such as Velcro.
Instructions
Measure and Make Box Pleats
1. Measure around the box spring of your bed to get the length of the material needed. Add an extra inch to account for seaming plus a little give around the box spring. Measure from the middle of the box spring to the ground to find the width of the material needed, adding 2 inches for hems. This is the base measurement.
2. Make box pleats by taking the fabric and folding it in four inches to the right and pinning it. Take the material to the right of that pleat and make another 4-inch pleat fold to the left that meets the first pleat in the center. Place a pin and unfold the material. Measure the length between the pins from the left and right pleat to determine how much fabric a box pleat uses.
3. Determine how far apart the pleats will be. Try three or four on each long side and two or three on the short sides. The total number of inches of all the pleats and the original length and width of the box spring, plus the extra inch of ease, is the length.
4. Cut the fabric and sew it to make the measured length. Your final seam will be placed at the top center of the box spring. Use pins to attach it to the box spring and begin pinning in the box pleats according to your measurements. Work all around the bed, adjusting as necessary until you reach the original open seam. Release the material from the box spring and iron your box pleats in place. Seam the open edges together.
5. Turn down the raw edge ½ inch at both the top and bottom and steam iron them in place. Turn each edge another ½ inch and seam both the top and bottom. Adjust the ruffle to fit from the box spring to the floor. Place fabric fasteners on both the box spring and the backside of the material. Stick it in place, and your box pleat dust ruffle is completed.
Make a Gathered Dust Ruffle
6. Double the measurement of the box spring for a gathered dust ruffle. Seam and finish raw edges. Turn the top seam down 1 inch and seam to form a casing.
7. Leave 2 inches open at the end of the casing to accommodate the elastic. Cut elastic to match the measurement of the box spring minus 4 inches. Place a large safety pin on the end of the elastic and feed it through the casing.
8. When it is through, seam the two ends of elastic together and hand stitch the casing closed. Use Velcro sections to attach the ruffle to the box spring for a finished dust ruffle.
Tags: around spring, both bottom, both spring, dust ruffle, dust ruffle, extra inch
