Sewing Instructions for Girl's Flirty Skirt

I scribbled down these instructions for the girl's flirty skirt I showed in an earlier post. The skirt is made with the Spoonflower fabric I designed. Skirts are very easy to make, and this design with the elasticized waist will fit through several growth spurts--today's knee-length skirt will be tomorrow's mini.

The pattern for this skirt consists simply of three rectangles, and can be made by an absolute beginner. I tried to make the directions for beginners to use, but if there are any confusing parts please let me know. I'd love to see how your skirt comes out using this pattern--send your photos and I'll post them here.

For a young girl, like my three-year-old daughter with a 19'' waist, you can make this skirt out of two fat quarters (21"x18" sold to quilters) of fabric.

1. Take two body measurements (in inches):

a. Measure around the waist (or widest part, ie. hips, thigh..)

b. Measure from the waist down to where you want the bottom of the skirt to be. (best to keep the top of the ruffle above the knee so the skirt is easier to run and play in.)

2. With a as the waist measurement, and b as the length measurement:

Cut two rectangles for the main part of the skirt (ax.5)+3.5" by (b-1"). In other words, (half of the waist measurement plus 3.5") by (the length measurement - 1").

Cut one rectangle for the ruffle 3 3/4" by (a+6")x2.5 (In other words: the waist measurement plus 6" times 2 1/2.). You will probably have to piece two pieces together to have a strip that is long enough--in that case, just add an inch to the length. It is not so important that the length of the ruffle be exact.

3. With right sides together (the printed faces of the fabric touching each other), make seams 5/8" from the edges as shown.

4. Press the seams open with an iron.










5. With right sides together, sew the ends of the ruffle piece together (and sew on any pieces you may have had to add on to get the the length you needed). Press open the seams.

6. Hem the ruffle by folding up the bottom 1/4", then pressing, then folding up 1/4" again, then pressing, then sewing along the edge.

7. To gather the ruffle, baste (sew with large stitches) 5/8" from the top of the edge, and then again 1/4" or so from the edge. (Offset the start of the 1/4" stitching from the start of the 5/8" stitching by a few inches if you want the ruffle to be nice and evenly gathered)

8. Gently pull the ends of the threads to gather the ruffle until it is the same size around as the main section of the skirt.

9. Pin the ruffle to the skirt with right sides together. Sew (don't forget to set your stitch length back to normal after basting) together, stitching on top of the 5/8" basted stitches. Remove basting that shows on right side. Press seam toward the top of the skirt.

10. To make the elasticized waist, fold over the top of the skirt 1/4" or so, press, then fold over again 3/4" (or more if the elastic is wide), and press. Sew a seam along the edge of the fold, leaving an inch or so gap between the start and finish of the seam for inserting the elastic.






11. Attach a safety pin to the end of a piece of elastic (to make it easy to feed through) and feed in through the folded over stitching. Adjust the length of elastic and sew the ends together.

12. Done!