How to Make an Under the Sea Bedskirt with the Cricut EasyPress 2
/This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine. This post contains affiliate links. If you use my links to make a purchase, I receive a small compensation (at no cost to you).
I am so excited to share the first project of my daughter’s room makeover with you today: an under the sea themed bed skirt! We moved across country about 2 years ago and I am FINALLY getting my daughters rooms decorated. We have moved a few times since we had kids, and each time I spend a lot of time personalizing their rooms and making sure they each have a special place to call their own. My younger daughter requested a mermaid room and I have had so much fun brainstorming fun and unique projects for her room.
For her room, we are starting from the seafloor up with this bedskirt! I wanted something that would be unique and fit the theme of her room, and I think we achieved that. The fun thing about this concept is that it would easily translate to many themed rooms for boys or girls. Sand, shells and fish for a beach themed room. Dirt, trucks and rocks for a construction themed room. Grass, flowers and butterflies for a nature themed room. The possibilities are endless!
How to make a themed bedskirt with Iron-on
Supply list:
Under the Sea Bedskirt Design on Cricut Design Space
Sewing machine or hem tape (if you need to adjust the drop length of your bedskirt)
I started with a basic bedskirt from target. I liked this one because it wasn’t pleated or gathered, so it was easier to lay out the design and I thought it would be more visible on the bed (the design might get folded into the ruffles if it was gathered). My daughter has a low-profile box spring, so I measured the distance from the top of the box spring to the floor to determine my bedskirt drop length. I had to hem this bedskirt because it was a longer drop, but not a big deal! I just measured how long I needed it, trimmed off the excess and sewed a new hem into place. If you don’t sew, you could easily hem it with an iron hem tape as well.
Then I started designing. Using Cricut Design Space, I selected a variety of sea plants and sea life to add to my project. I played a bit with mirroring, placement and colors to keep it visually interesting and also to add a lot of color into my design. Then I adjusted the colors to better match with the theme of the room. Her walls are painted pink, which she wants to keep, so I did some light pink to pull that in, and added in teals, greens and pops of bright colors. I also kept an eye on how tall and wide it was so it would fit the drop length of the bedskirt. You can find the design that I made here.
Once I had the basic design and colors laid out, I determined how many repeats of the design I would need to go around the bottom of the bed. My bed measured 202 inches around (3 sides) and I divided that by the length of my design which was right at 4, so I duplicated the design 3 times.
I did spend some time working through the colors and making sure my design colors were the same for elements I wanted to cut out of the same colors. That made it much easier when cutting since design space groups each color together on your mat. Some of the pieces in my design were bigger and the way they were grouped did not maximize the space, so for those I adjusted the layout and combined some onto fewer mats. That worked great and saved me a few mats worth of materials and cutting. I ended up with 15 colors (a mix of Everyday Iron-on, Foil Iron-on, Glitter Iron-on and Iron-on Lite) and 23 mats for the final project.
I cut all of my pieces out using my Maker. Then I weeded and trimmed my pieces. I did cut most of the excess carrier off the pieces because sometimes you can see lines where the carrier sheet is when you layer (and there was a lot of layering) and I wanted to minimize that.
There were a lot of pieces cut out, so I put them in piles to help keep everything sorted and referred back to my design on the computer to make sure I was following the pattern. Although, it wouldn’t really matter if you didn’t because that just makes it your own! Then I got down to business with pressing the Iron-on to my bedskirt.
I used the newest Cricut release, the EasyPress 2, to make quick work of pressing on the design to my bedskirt. The new EasyPress 2 comes in three sizes (6x7, 9x9, and 12x10) and I used the largest one for my bedskirt. The awesome thing about the large size is that I was able to press several pieces at one time, which helps A LOT when you have a huge project like this. I also used the largest easy press mat (which is the best sewing accessory I never knew I needed, BTW) which gave me a nice, big surface to work on. In addition to the amazing raspberry color, the features of the EasyPress 2 make it a must have to your Cricut line up. I used the recommended heat settings here to set my temperature and time (which is super easy to do!) and got it heated up and ready to go in no time. The highest temperature I needed for this project was 330 degrees for the glitter, but the EasyPress 2 goes up to a whopping 400 degrees to meet all of your iron on needs.
I started out placing the Iron-on pieces on the bedskirt and pressing them with the EasyPress 2. I did a couple of sections of the bottom layer pieces, and then went back and added in the layering pieces. The layering added a lot of dimension, and sparkle, to the project. I just kept working around the bottom of the skirt until I made my way all the way around. It took a few hours, but with over 250 pieces, you have to expect that! I made sure to get a washable bedskirt (and prewash it) so that I can wash it if need be since kids are messy! This project has a lot of time, effort and materials in it so I am loving Cricut’s StrongBond™ Guarantee on their Everyday and Glitter Iron-on. Their guarantee means that they will replace your materials for free if you are not completely satisfied with your results (when used as directed). I know that I can wash my bedskirt and feel confident that my iron-on will stick even if I wash it often (let’s hope not because bedskirts are NOT the easiest to take on and off!).
And that’s it! A perfectly personalized bedskirt to fit a little mermaids dream room! I finished after she was in bed, but she was over the moon the next morning when she saw it down. She told me “I am so happy that it is different from everything you can buy at store.” She's at an age where having something special and different is really important to her, and luckily having a mom that’s crafty and sews helps make that happen for her.
I can’t wait to move on to the next project for her room: A QUILT! Plus I have several other projects to sew and make with my Maker machine. I can’t wait to share those with you as well. What ideas do you have for your next room decorating project? Comment below!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
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