Today I made the crib skirt for the pink and grey nursery set and I thought I would pass on a few steps often not included in commercial patterns. The first is to miter your hem corners on the skirt sides rather than just turning in the side and bottom hem allowances and hemming.
In these directions I am using a total of a 1 1/2" hem on the sides and bottom of each skirt side. Press under 1/2" and then an additional 1" hem on each side you are hemming. At each corner, open the hem allowances. Fold the right sides of the fabric together to form the following triangle:
 | |
| You will be sewing a 90 degree angle from the point were you turned under your 1" hem to the 1/2" hem point. Sew a seam between these two points. |
 | |
| Once you've sewn your seam, trim the seam allowance to 1/4" and cut the point at an angle. |
 |
| Finger press the seam allowance open. |
 |
| Turn right side out with the 1/2" seam allowance on the edge turned under. I'm using a metal Dritz hem gauge with my steam iron to get a crisp edge when pressing. |
 |
| To sew down the hem, I used my blindstitch foot with my needle to the left. |
 |
| This is the inside of the mitered corner. Sure is nice not to have bulky crooked corners! The blindstitch foot does a great job. |
 | ||
| Once the side panels are attacked to the main piece, I serge or finish off the seam. Then I press the seam towards the body of the skirt base. |
 |
| The next trick is I get out my blindstitch foot again and use it to put a row of stay stitching along the seam. Stay stitching is just important in home dec sewing as it is in sewing apparel. Just like you don't want your facing to flip up at your neckline, you don't want the seam flipping around when the skirt is washed. |
 |
| Just a few extra seams will give professional results to your project. |
