Sink skirts sometimes head into the realm of awful and tacky, but if you do them right, they can be an awesome way to hide the ugly pipes under your sink, and add some extra covered storage. Most of the ones you can buy in the store go on the outside of the sink, but that just strikes me as a little gross. I mean, who wants to try and wash off the icky crusted up toothpaste that missed the sink and dripped down the edge? Yuck! My version goes on the inside of your sink, so it won’t work with all sinks, but it will with a lot of older ones AND you can make it without sewing. If your sink doesn’t have a way to put the skirt on the inside, you can follow all the directions and attach it to the outside. Just make extra sure the fabric you use is machine washable.
What you need:
-Fabric of your choice (something a little heavier is better).
-Tape measure
-Tailor’s chalk, fabric marker, or Sharpie
-Scissors
-Steam-a-seam
-Iron
-Ironing board
-Thread
-Needle
-Sticky Velcro squares
-Steel wool/scrubby sponge
-Soap
-Towel
Now put it together:
1) Before you buy your fabric (or choose which fabric to use from your stash), use your tape measure to measure the distance from the bottom edge of your sink to the floor and also the distance around the edge of the bottom of your sink.
2) Using the measurements you just took, calculate the amount of fabric you’ll need. Add 1″ to each measurement to allow for seams. Your piece of fabric will need to be as long as the distance from the bottom of the sink to the floor and the width should be 2.5 or 3 times the measurement you took of the distance around the edge of the sink, depending on how ruffly you want the skirt to be. The rufflier you want it, the wider your fabric piece has to be. Example: my sink ends 24″ above the ground and is about 32″ around. My piece of fabric was 81″ x 25″ to allow for seams.
3) Purchase a piece of fabric that is at least that big and cut your fabric to the appropriate size.
4) Use the Steam-a-Seam to hem your fabric rectangle on all four sides. Follow the instructions on the box for the appropriate iron temperature. As far as creating the actual seams, you can do it however works for you, but the way I do it is: Fold 1/2″ of fabric over to the back of the fabric along each edge and use your iron to press the crease. Then, cut your Steam-a-Seam to the appropriate length, insert it in the fold you’ve made, and then iron slowly over to set the seam. Make sure there’s no Steam-a-Seam sticking out from the fabric fold or it will melt onto your iron and create a sticky mess. I find it easiest to do one edge at a time all the way through, but you could do each step on each edge before you move on.
5) Once you’ve got a hemmed rectangle, thread your needle with a length of thread that’s longer than your longest fabric edge. (E.g. in my case my thread would have to be more than 81″ long). Along the top edge of your fabric, sew long, loose running stitches. Each stitch should be about 1/2″ long. This is called basting. If you’re not quite sure what I’m talking about (it’s hard to describe!), click here to look at pictures.
6) When you’ve finished sewing, pull your thread tight to gather the fabric into ruffles. Make it as ruffly as you’d like it to be and then tie off the thread so that the ruffles stay. You can cut whatever excess thread you have.
7) Attach one side of your sticky Velcro squares to the inside of the fabric at appropriate intervals. My sink is pretty small, so I used six squares, but if you have a larger sink or are using really heavy fabric, you might want to use more. If you’re worried about the fabric coming unstuck from the squares, sew a few stitches through each square to make sure it stays in place.
8) Before you attach the other side of the squares to the sink, be sure to clean it really well and dry it off. If it’s an older sink, like mine was, it’ll probably be rusty on the inside, in which case a good scrubbing with steel wool is in order.
9) Once the inside of your sink is clean and dry, stick up the other side of the sticky Velcro squares (at the same intervals you stuck your squares to the fabric) and hang your sink skirt. It’s all done! And then, if you ever need to wash it, just un-Velcro it and wash away. If you want, you can create more than one curtain and rotate them.
I know this seems like a lot of steps, but I made mine in well under an hour (not including time to buy fabric, since I got mine from my stash), so it’s definitely do-able. Happy crafting, kids!
