Twirly Stripwork Skirt

These are the measurements for making a size 6 skirt. You can easily adjust it by making the individual pieces slightly larger or smaller as needed.

I don't really know total yardage of fabric you will need b/c mine was all pulled from scraps except the purple. You just need 16 total pieces for the body of the skirt, you can use as many or as few different fabrics as you want.

For this version, you will need 4 coordinating fabrics cut to the following dimensions:

4 pieces of each of the 4 fabrics measuring 6" x 10"
1 piece fabric of choice for the bottom measuring 3" x 90"
1 piece fabric of choice for the drop waist measuring 7" x 30"

Everything was sewn using 1/4" seam allowances except the elastic casing for the waist.

Sew the 6" x 10" pieces together along the 10" sides to form the skirt body.

Piece your bottom hem pieces together to get a strip measuring 3" by 90". Then fold it in half top to bottom and press.

Sew this piece along the bottom of your skirt body and trim any extra off of the end.

To make gathering more easy, I simply sew a wide long zig zag stitch over a piece of cotton yarn. I had 1/2 skein of a Peaches and Cream type yarn left over from another project and I just use it over an over again for all of my gathering, but any thinner yarn will work just fine. Then, just start gathering the skirt piece on the string until it measures approximately 30", the same length as your drop waist piece. I don't actually gather it on the machine as I go, just a pic to show you how it is done.

Pin the gathered skirt to the bottom of the drop waist placing right sides together.

I don't worry about taking out the piece of yarn, I just sew right through it. I usually stitch the skirt to the drop waist piece twice. First with a straight stitch, then with a zig zag in the seam allowance to help cut down on some of the raveling later. I have a singer tiny serger, but it really isn't worth getting out to do this in my opinion.

Umm, this is where the pictures of the steps stop. Why you might ask? Well, because I got in a hurry. I had to finish the skirt in time to make a mad dash to Wal-Mart to find a matching shirt before I had to pick the girls up from school. I knew Aly would want to wear it to tomorrow and going to Wal-Mart with 2 girls is not something I usually find fun.

Ok, all that is really left to do is sew up the side seam and make the casing for your elastic. I am sure if you have made it this far, you can figure out how to do those 2 things without pictures. For the elastic measurement, I use a piece of elastic 1" shorter than the actual waist measurement. Aly's waist is 21" so I used a 20" piece of elastic and overlapped it by about 3/4" when I sewed the 2 ends together. I like to use either 3/4" or 1" elastic for waistbands, but it is really all personal prefrence.

Put it on your favorite 6 year old, send them to the yard, and snap some pics of her having fun twirling, dancing, and doing her best self chosen model poses. Aly requested that "I be able to wear this with jeans instead of leggings, but jeans without red on them, just plain ones please". Fine with me because I think wearing skirts with jeans shows her personality, which is cute, innocent, and funky all at the same time. Plus, they are warmer than leggings.