Twirly Skirts and Tutorial

I made the girls some drop waisted twirly skirts this morning, and took pics to put a tutorial together. It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out twirl skirts, so I thought this might be helpful. My girls love these kinds of skirts.

Drop Waist Twirl Skirt Tutorial

Start out by measuring your child's hip or waist depending on where they wear bottoms, and the length from that area to where you want the skirt to fall.

A. Waist Pieces
Cut 2 waist pieces 4 inches long and the child's waist measurement divided by 2 plus a couple of inches for ease wide (measurement A from now on ).

B. Lower Skirt Pieces
Measuring on the fold, draw a rectangle the width of measurement A wide, and the length you want the skirt to be minus 3 inches. You'll need to do this with both the upper and lower skirt if you want it to have 2 layers. You can just make one layer as well.

C. Ruffle
For a ruffle take the length of the bottom skirt portion and multiply by 1.5. Divide by 2, and measuring on fold, the width that you just came up with. You can make the ruffle however long you want it. Mine was 3 inches folded in half to equal 1.5 inches.

Here's a pic to help my unintelligible  instructions:

Now, Sew the short ends of the ruffle together, and hem or fold in half, whatever you prefer. Mark quarters. Sew The sides of the lower skirt pieces together and mark bottom in quarters.

I use the side seams as 2 of my quarter marks, and if you do this all you have to mark is the middle of the front and back pieces.

Run gathering stitches along top of ruffle and gather up to match quarter marks and sides. Pin all along the edges. Baste then sew then serge or zig zag edges. Topstitch pressing the seam towards the top of the lower skirt portion.

Gathering Ruffle:

Pinning and matching quarter marks:

Basting:

Serging:

Topstitching:

Now sew the sides of both the waist pieces and the upper skirt pieces. Mark both into quarters. Match the sides of both the upper and lower skirt pieces and pin.  Sew gathering stitches along the top of both upper and lower pieces at the same time.  Pull stitches up and match quarter marks and pin. Baste then sew then serge or zig zag edges. Topstitch pressing the seam towards the top of the waist pieces.

Pinning upper and lower skirt pieces together:

Gathering skirt pieces:

Hem the upper skirt piece with a thin hem.

Insert elastic and you are done. Here's the one's I made this morning:

Kelsey:

Paige's:

I also made her peasant top out of yummy organic cotton lycra. I shirred it to give it more shape.

Ok, this is my FIRST tutorial, and I know I don't explain myself all that well, but if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me and I will be glad to help. And, if you decide to make one, PLEASE send me pics, I'd love to see.

Going end this one with pics of my girls TO DIE FOR eyelashes. I wish mine were that long and thick :)

Comments

[Becky]

Too cute! Thanks for the tutorial, I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to wear cute skirts like that.

[Randi]

Oh this is so cool! I saw an eyelet skirt in the Garnet hill catalog. It has a tulle underskirt sticking out the bottom. I bought the stuff to make it today at the fabric store and I just figured that I would "wing it" and try to figure out how to make it. Well, now i can just use your tutorial!

Thank you so much for putting this together! It's perfect!

[Carla]

How fun! The skirts look great. Thanks for taking the time to make a tut!

[Mary]

Thanks for the tutorial, Hope!

[Carla]

I just updated my blog, and I mentioned this tut on my post. I'm going to highlight helpful posts that I find on my blog. Thanks for taking the time to help the rest of us!

[kara spencer]

gorgeous outfits, wow you are sooo talented
kara
x

[heidi]

great tutorial!

[Amanda]

Hi there, Im new to your blog and would like to say thankyou so much for the tutorial, Im off to make a skirt for my daughter right now.

[mindy]

looks like i'm going to have to re-try this because i ended up with a very tight fit on dd--think i messed up the upper & lower skirt width(didn't cut on fold).

[Hannah]

Hey,
Thanks so much! I'm off to try this right now!

[deedee]

I love the skirts (and the eyelashes)! Do you have a tutorial on the peasant top too? I've been looking forever for a decent peasant pattern, one to use for shirts and dresses too.

[Dress Games]

What an adorable dress on a kid.

[simone]

This is today's Daily How-To Twitter. Thanks twitter.com/groundsel

[sue]

i love the skirts and the top. now i'm looking for dress tutorial for my girl, do you have a tutorial on the peasant top too? tQ

[Jackie]

FINALLY! A tutorial for a twirly skirt that gets the desired look I want for my girls! Such a quick and easy skirt to make. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I already made one today for my 3 year old. She wouldn't take it back off so I think it's a keeper! I can't wait to make one for my 7 year old. You, my dear, are my hero! THANK YOU!

[Laura]

The cows are adorable! The skirt is really cute and the cows make me smile.

[Anna Graham]

Love the skirt! Do you have a tutorial on the peasant shirt yet?