Friday, March 11, 2011

Spring-y skirt tutorial for (very) beginner seamstresses

It's snowing again. A lot.

Sooo, in hopes of calling Spring to us I've been sewing lots of floral, fun skirts for N. to wear when Spring does finally come.


Here's what I did:

  1. Cut your fabric of choice the entire of width you'll need (front and back of the skirt) - for N., a 2T size, I cut 24 inches
  2. Measure 1/4 in on each side, fold and iron well.
  3. Measure a 1/2 in at top, iron, pin, and sew leaving the middle open to pass the elastic through.
  4. Pin and sew ribbon along the stitches at top (optional)
  5. Pin and sew ruffles at bottom (optional) - this was tougher than I thought. The fabric was stretchy and keeping my stitches straight turned out to be mission impossible for me.
  6. Cut elastic a much shorter length, so that the top will bunch up, but not too short that it'll be too tight. For N. I cut 18 inches of elastic and that worked out great.
  7. Using a diaper pin or something similar, grab the elastic and pull through. Since there's more skirt than elastic, when the elastic end is getting close to the fabric opening, pin them together so it won't go completely through. Once both ends of the elastic are once more outside of the fabric, pin and sew them together (1 inch).
  8. Cover the sewed section of the elastic with the fabric.
  9. Using the 1/4 inch folds you ironed earlier, pin and sew the skirt closed - sew the 1/4" right sides together, including the ruffles.
Done!

Care to share your easiest, fastest sewing project? Or it doesn't have to be sewing - all crafts are welcome here. :)

4 comments:

  1. Wow, those ruffles are incredible. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really sweet! :-)

    Oh, I don´t sew that much (yet) except pillows and curtains - and that is fast and pretty simple at least. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. This skirt --the fabric and the overall design --is SO pretty!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh I love this!!! Let's ignore the snow and focus on such lovely spring ideas...like your skirt..and just maybe Mrs. Spring will get the idea. xoxoxox hugs

    ReplyDelete