DIY 22" velcro crib skirt from a twin sheet (so easy its not even funny)

My grandmother got us this amazing crib for our babygirl. And, as most cribs come, the length from the mattress to the floor is 22 inches.

 

Psychopath in me won't buy a crib skirt that doesn't reach the floor, but I'm also not spending $335 on one that does (literally the only 22 inch crib skirt I could find was on etsy and $335. Hells to the no)

SO. We're making our own today here on belladwella. And I did a little step by step tutorial, because you could really do this for a regular mattress as well.

Here's what you'll need:
1. a twin sheet (perfect for crib length)
2. measuring tape
3. velcro
4. pins
5. sewing machine
6. iron

For the crib skirt, I wanted a classic print that was sort of benign but also had a little bit of personality. Once I saw these vintage (but brand new) Paule Marrot sheets on eBay, I knew I had to have them. Much to my surprise  the seller was selling each piece separately  so I had the option to just buy the twin flat sheet which had that cute little pink piping where you normally fold it over on the bed. Soo... 15 bucks and 5 days later..

First things first, measure your crib. Add about 2 inches onto the measurement so you have enough room to play with the length when you add the velcro strips to the top. You don't have to have everything cut perfectly this way, because you can make adjustments with the velcro. The drop length here was 22 inches, so I cut my sheet to be 24 inches top to bottom. Make sense?

 

Next, you want to figure out how long your sheet is across, and how wide your crib is. The twin sheet something around 70 inches, and the crib was 51 inches. So doing some math I figured out I could have about 5 box pleats, using about 3 inches of gathered fabric each time, and have them about 8 inches apart.
This would also leave enough room so that I could have some overhang on the one corner when you walk in the room (thank god I did that - you'll see what I mean below).

Another easy thing to keep in mind if you're doing pleats, work from the outsides in, and do an uneven amount of them (I did 5 - so I did 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and then found the center point for the 5th). This way, regardless of whether or not your pleats are evenly spaced once you get to that center, you'll at least know everything is symmetrical.

Here's the first pleat:

 

and here's what that finished pleat looks like from the front:

now it's time to sew. The beauty here is that you won't see this top part because it'll be covered by the mattress. So feel free to do this as free hand and messy as you want.

 

All you have to to is pop on the velcro (I cut mine in approx 3 inch strips), and sew the whole top part down the line.

YOU CANNOT SKIP THIS STEP: (I did the first time... big mistake. do yourself a favor and iron dem pleats girlfriend!)

almost done! Lift up your mattress, and line up the velcro. Smack it on the wooden board in your crib and smush your crib skirt onto it.

how it should look from the side: (and can you see why I was glad I had those few extra inches to go around the corner a bit? yeah).

Lay your mattress back down, and by george, you've done it.

Some closing thoughts:

• When you need to lower the crib for safety or to create baby-Alcatraz, all you'll need to do is re-measure the length and add more velcro. It's the crib skirt that keeps on giving.
• Second thing, you could also do this with pinch pleats, gathered pleats, whatever. 
• Finally, I didn't go around all 4 sides. But you could.