Showing posts with label skirts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skirts. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Tiered Patchwork Skirts

So I was at the fabric store one day and came across some fabulous M'Liss fabrics, 50% off!!  They were like $3-and-change a yard!  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I couldn't pass them up.  The peach and yellow had to-die-for borders (flowers and a gardening scene).


The more I stared at them wondering what to do with them, the more I realized that I couldn't split them up--part of their beauty was all of them together.  So I decided to make my girls tiered, patchwork skirts.


Sorry I didn't take pictures along the way for a tutorial, but I can tell you what I did.  I took their waist measurements and added 4 or 5 inches for the first tier (funny how my 4yo's waist was only 1 inch smaller than her 8yo sister's waist!).  I let the older two girls pick which fabric they wanted for the top tier--I didn't want the bulk of patches on top, so I left the top solid.  I cut that strip 7" wide for the elastic casing.  The squares are all cut 5".  Each tier is approximately 1.5 times the circumference of the tier above.  I sewed the squares in random order into strips, then sewed the ends together to make the complete loop.  I then gathered the top and sewed it to the tier above.  

Once I had as many tiers as I wanted for that skirt, I then hemmed the bottom and encased 1" latex-free elastic in the waist.  I buy my latex-free elastic by the yard from Decent Exposures.  It's not listed on their site, but if you e-mail them, you can buy it at great prices with no other purchase necessary.  Their customer service is great and the prices for latex-free elastic can't be beat!  They have it in many widths and their shipping is super speedy!

For the shirts, I bought simple white shirts with a pocket for the older two, a white onesie for the baby.  I made fabric bows to pin onto each girl's pocket and more fabric bows for their hair.  I made each girl's bows out of the same fabric I used for their first tier on the skirt.

If any of that doesn't make sense, please let me know so I can clarify.  Again, I'm sorry I have no pictures to help demonstrate step-by-step.  I'll try to remember to do that from now on!

Here they are wearing their skirts and looking cute!


I still have a good amount of each fabric leftover, especially the stripes (I bought more of it than of the others).  I'm not sure what I want to do with the remaining fabric.  Any ideas? Pin It