Skirted Nightstand Un-Tutorial

I'm calling this an "un-tutorial" because I did everything wrong.  I bought the wrong amount of fabric, spent more money than I should have,  and basically went about the construction of this thing the wrong way. 

So instead of posting my "how-to" pictures I took along the way (which are all wrong) I'll try and share what I should have done.

Here is what I started out with.  My $12 Salvation Army nightstand.  I didn't paint it (even though it would have been cheaper) because I have it turned sideways.  I bought it because of it's size.  It just fits next to the bed really well and looks better paired with the trunk on the other side.  I was inspired by Debbie's skirted table at Bungalow and decided that fabric would be a good alternative to paint. 

One thing I forgot is that I'm not a great sewer.  I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type person and while that usually works out for me, it did not work for me on this project.

The first thing I got wrong was the fabric.  The striped fabric was just too much to put next to our patterned duvet.  I should have just gotten enough of it for the piping and gotten more of the cream muslin.  I'm so sad to say that the striped fabric was $16.00 per yard (and that was the sale price!).  I should have just gotten a fourth of a yard instead of a whole one.  I ended up spending $35 on fabric when I should have spent $25.  I realize $10 isn't that big of a difference, but since I'm only spending what I can earn from Craigslist on decorating, it's quite a hit.

Next, I should have been patient and followed this tutorial on how to cut fabric on the bias. 

via

That way my piping would have been cleaner around the corners of my skirt.

Then I should have watched this video on how to attach piping so that it makes corners.

This is probably the biggest mistake that I made.  I didn't attach the piping to the top panel of my skirt before I tried to put the other panels on.  The result was a whole mess of pins.  Doing this the right way would have made the rest so much easier.

I managed to get the side panels attached (kind of) before I called in the help of a friend.

She was the doctor and this was the ER.  She has way better equipment and a ton more experience than I do.

I tried to stay out of the way while she fixed the mess I had made.  Thanks again, Becca!

Even though I made a ton of mistakes, I'm really happy with the end result and I think I could do it right if I had to do it again.  Thank goodness I don't. 

I'll be linking up to: