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?