Bassinet Skirt

As I mentioned in my previous post my husband and I are expecting our first baby soon. There is a wonderful old bassinet that has been in my husband's family for years. Every cousin from his generation and every child of those cousins has slept in it, and each precious baby name is recorded on the underside of the bassinet, making it a very special family heirloom. My in-laws brought the bassinet down to our place a few months ago so that our baby could be the next to use it. Along with the bassinet came a lovely skirt and liner that his grandmother handmade for it years ago for her first grandchild. However, the idea of using this heirloom skirt terrified me. I didn't want to be the one to ruin Grandma W.'s antique bassinet skirt!  So, with no prior experience in this sort of sewing project, I decided to make a new one that could get spit up on or have diaper leaks on and be none the worse for wear. We'll use Grandma W.'s skirt for some keepsake pictures, but then change it out for the one I made which can get ruined in good conscience. 

Like I said, I didn't really know what I was doing when I embarked on this ambitious project. I looked up tutorials online and used the original skirt as a sort of template, and winged it from there. When skill or knowledge gave out, "Enthusiasm!" was the battle cry! This tutorial ended up being the most helpful. I won't attempt to tell you what I did, for fear that people that really know how to sew would cringe at my exploits. But above is a picture of the finished bassinet skirt!

The skirt was made from a pretty tan-colored cotton fabric. The inside liner was made from some ivory quilted fabric that resembled the liner from the original skirt. Oh, and I also made the navy bassinet sheet because the mattress was an odd size. But that is another story.

Getting the rounded corners done correctly was the hardest part for me, again because I didn't exactly know what I was doing. It turned out okay, but it isn't as snugly fitted as I could wish. Ah well.

I had enough of the tan fabric left over to make matching ties for the nursery curtains. They were a relief to make after the dangers the skirt. Hurray for straight lines! :)