Ruffled Full Skirt - Tutorial

Trenna needed a little toddler skirt with 3 tiers of ruffles and she wanted it full. 

 Here are my instructions. ;-)  But you can see that the fabric I used was Michael Miller's Lacey Daisy.











Here's the tutorial for how to make your own pattern for this skirt.

I took a square of fabric at least 28" square and folded it in quarters.  From that center folded corner, I measured 14" from the corner in all directions from one side to the other, marking with chalk as I went.  This gives you a dotted line that you can cut on and a nice circle.

 Do the same for the top circle cut out that will become the waist.  In this case I cut it 4" down from the center corner.

 As you can see, the measurement of the waist (divided by 4 since it is still folded) is almost 6".  When multiplied by 4, you know that the opening is almost 24" which was plenty for this petite baby.

But let's say that you want to figure for someone much larger than a 1-yr-old.  It's simple.  With math, you know you need the opening about 24", and you need to figure out the radius.  Simply divide that waist measurement by 3.14 and you get the diameter.  Half that and you have the radius, or the length of the line down from the center fold.  24 divided by 3.14 equals 7.643.  Divide by 2 again and you have 3.821.  Let's round up to 4" (since this is elasticized) and it will be almost 24".

But your daughter's waist is 28" and her hips are 40", so that hole has to be much larger.  Take the 40 and divide by 3.14 which equals 12.738.  Divide by 2 and you get 6.369.  Round up to the 6.5" for ease.

 "But I can't do math!"  I hear you say.  Not a problem.  Measure around your daughters hips - 40".  Divide that by 4.  Scared of that much math?  Fold your tape measure in half and then half again.  10".  Now lay that tape measure in a curved quarter circle on the fabric in the folded corner (like it is in the picture above), only have the end on one side and the 10 lining up with the other side.  Eyeball it and make it look even.  Put a couple marks in chalk or something that comes off easily.

Now measure down from the corner.  Hmm it seems that it is 6" in some places, 7" in others and a bunch in between.  How about trying a measurement somewhere in that range than.  Measure down from the corner and mark the quarter circle in chalk.  Now measure around that curve with your tape measure.  Does it come out to 10?  Do you need to extend the length of that radius or shorten it?

This way has a lot more guess work, but it can still be done without a calculator.  Make sure it's right before you cut.

OK, back to making the skirt.

 We need a lot of ruffles.  For this I marked where I was going to put the ruffles and measured the area for length (see photo above) which I then multiplied by about 2 to 2-1/2.  (Anywhere from 1-1/2 to 3 times works, depending on how ruffly you want it.)
 

After cutting the strips (mine are cut at 5-1/2", allowing 1/2" for the hem and 3/4" for the seam plus 1/2" or more overlap), I sewed them all together to make 3 circular bands.

You also will need a waistband (cut to the size of the waist hole plus 1" for seams) and 3" wide.

You will also need 3/4" elastic cut to the size of the waist. 

For hemming, I ironed up the bottom 1/2"(see photo above).  As I sew, I will fold the raw edge into the fold and the hem will be 1/4" when finished.

 On the raw edge, sew a double basting stitch (one at 3/8" and one at 3/16" from the raw edge), leaving the threads long on both ends to make gathering easier.

 Set aside.

 Lightly iron the skirt in quarters.  This gives you a great way to make sure that your ruffles will be evenly spaced.

 Next, take a scant 1/4" basting stitch around the bottom of the skirt, leaving strings at the beginning and ending for gathering ever so slightly.

 Now we need to gather, ever so slightly.  This is too much, but it shows you the gather.


 You can see that it's gathered all around.  Here again, this is way more gathering than is needed - I pull out most of that gathering.










 Here you can hopefully see that I'm sliding most of the gathering out of the way as I fold the hem next to the basted line and then fold again (so the basting stitch is just barely hidden under the fold).  When you stitch the hem in, the basting stitch will not show.








 Here you see the hem folded up and pinned, ready to sew.  The hem should lie flat thanks to the slight gather inside that hem.  Stitch the hem close to the folded edge.













 Now it's time to sew the ruffles on.

Make marks on the skirt where the ruffle needs to be.  If you look carefully, you will see that I have a mark at the 3-1/2" mark and at the 6-3/4" mark.  Make marks around the entire skirt.  The raw edge of the ruffles need to match up with the marks.

 Take those 3 bands that you have hemmed and basted.  Fold in quarters and mark with a pin.  Match each pin with the fold on the skirt, as well as keeping the raw edge lined up with the markings.  Gather between the pins, evening out the gathers.




I began with the bottom ruffle.

With the hem of the ruffle pointing towards the top of the skirt, and with right sides together, sew 1/4" from the raw edge of the ruffle.  This should be right in the middle of the two gathering stitches.










 Remove the basting stitch that is visible from the front.

Carefully topstitch the ruffle.  Make sure that the circle skirt is staying flat and the ruffle is folded at the seam line.

 Side view of the topstitching.

Repeat for the second ruffle.

For the top ruffle, simply line up the raw edge of the ruffle with the raw edge of the skirt.

 Waistband:

Sew the two ends of the waistband together from the halfway point to the long edge.

To find the halfway point, finger press the band in half lengthwise.

Press the seam open, including the part that is not sewn.

 Fold in half lengthwise and stitch the long raw edges together 1/4" - 3/8" from the raw edge.  As you see, there is an opening for you to thread your elastic through the waistband.  Make sure that opening is on the inside of the garment.

 Next pin the waistband to the top of the skirt.  For that opening to be on the inside when finished, it needs to be visible when pinning right sides together. (see photo)

 Sew waistband to skirt with a 1/2" seam.

Thread the elastic through the waistband.  I put a big safety pin perpendicular to the elastic on one end, then a smaller safety pin at the other end to help me thread the elastic through.

Sew the ends of the elastic together, then draw them inside the casing by stretching the waistband.  Hand stitch the small opening closed.

Et, voila!  Fini!

Extention on Curtains for Nikki

Last week, my friend, Nikki asked me to make some curtains she bought a little longer.  She decided that what she wanted was some faux leather added to the bottom that would match some other accessories in the room.  Here it is all done.

Halloween Ninja Hat - Tutorial

I had two little boys that wanted to be ninjas for Halloween and the Trunk or Treat was coming up in . . . well, it was that night.  Some solid fleece black pajamas did the trick for the black suit, but what to do for the mask?  Well, here is my simple and fast solution that was good enough for my boys.  Yes, I would make some modifications if I had had a bit more time, but this worked and was fast and easy.

 First thing, I grabbed one of their fleece hoodies and laid it out inside out on top of a folded piece of fabric (fold at the top).  I then traced around the back with some chalk where I would need to trim.  As you notice, I have extra (about 1") in the front to allow for a hem.

 As you can see, the hood is about 14" from the top of the fold down to the base of the neck.  I've hemmed the front and sewn the back together.  The fabric he chose was a lycra fabric which was plenty stretchy.  I had him try it on and marked where he wanted the mask to come and how far across the front it needed to be.  He wanted it to go up 10" from the bottom. (That what the pin is for.)

 I measured and cut a piece slightly larger to allow for the hem.  (I allowed for a 1/4" seam because of the size of the stretch stitch I was using.  You can add what you need).

BTW - like my Oreo Logo fingernail?

 Next hem the top of the rectangle. 

 Then pin to both sides of the front seam and sew.

 The second mask was made of fleece and needed a little bit of adjustment for it to fit.  First off, Fleece is not as stretchy, so the rectangle size had to be adjusted.  It was closer to 8"x6."  He also said he need it to be higher in the center and come down at the sides.    As you can see in the pictures below, there is probably about a 1/2" difference from the fold to where it is sewn to the hood.  I agree that it fit better around his nose and eyes than the orange does on his brother with that slight angling of the front rectangle.

I also needed to make sure the stretch went from side to side so it could be easily stretched over the head.  I was lazy and didn't hem the fleece since it won't unravel any time soon.  Good enough for a quick costume.  However, if you are so inclined, hem away.

Dress for Baby June

A wonderful friend of mine, Meagan, had each of her daughters' photograph taken professionally when they were 6 months old. She had found similar styled dresses at a particular store, but when the third girl, June, came alone, that store had gone out of business and she hunted high and low for a similar typed dress, but to no avail.  She asked me to make it for her.  The catch was that each of the dresses had tuck pointing, but I had neither done tuck pointing before, nor did the pattern she got call for it, so there would need to be a modification of the pattern.  I would be lying to say that I not nervous.  I was glad to try it out, though and we had a back up plan if my tuck pointing failed.

 What I did was carefully sew equidistant basting stitches on a piece of fabric that was about 3 times the width (to allow for the gathering) of the piece you want tuckpointed.  Sew the basting stitches the same distance apart that the final stitches will be. The YouTube videos I watched told me something like 1/4" but I found that to be too close together because my final stitches were wider than theirs were.  You want the space between your stitches to be about 1/4."  Anyway, gather all the basting stitches.  This part is time consuming and you must take care to not break your threads.  Once it's gathered to the right length, sew your final stitches between your basting stitches.  When completely finished with that part, pull the basting stitches out. 

 Next, lay the pattern on it and cut it out.  I basted the edges so they would stay the right size and used that piece for the front bodice piece.  It worked!  Woo Hoo!

Christmas Gift from Porter to Gideon

For Christmas, 4 year old Porter (with some assistance from me, OK, a lot of assistance from me), made Gideon a pillow case that matches his baby blanket.  We embroidered a big G and his name on it.  Here's a snap shot taken on Christmas as he waved it around.

Christmas Present (Shorts) for Kendall from Emerald

My brother, Kendall is pretty picky on his selection of clothing.  Many long years ago, when we were all still in college, Emerald made Kendall a pair or two of shorts that was a style that he really loved.  He's worn them for, what?, 15 years or more and they were wearing thin.  So, since Emerald gave to Ken for Christmas, she made him 3 pair of shorts from the same pattern she had used way back when.  They even have the welt pockets in the back.  Way to go, Em!  The colors in the pictures are not the best - sorry. They're black, navy and tan shorts.

Christmas Fleece/Flannel Blanket for Denise and me

In my family of origin, we have a rotation going for giving gifts at Christmas.  The gift doesn't have to cost anything, but it hast to be valued at $20 (or more).  If you want to spend more than that, that is your choice, but you can't expect anything more than a $20 gift.

This past Christmas, it was my turn to give to my brother Charles and his wife, Denise.  Now I know I'm a little weird on this, but I think about Christmas gifts all year, so when Denise commented on my kids' fleece/flannel blankets and that she wanted one last January or February, I knew exactly what I was going to do.  My daughter, Monica would be making Porter a crazy topped fleece/flannel blanket, I thought I'd do the same.  I wouldn't have to buy anything more than what I already had - I'd even piece the back with left over strips from all the fleece movie blankets I've made.

Monica and I worked on the large crazy fleece squares and they took SO much longer than I had ever anticipated, and I put so much into it, that as I was finishing it up, I commented to my sister, Emerald, that it would be hard to give it up.  She asked if Denise was expecting the crazy quilt.  No, she didn't know what she was getting.  She said that Denise would appreciate the work I did, but she her feelings wouldn't be hurt to have a different one.  Did I have enough fabric to throw together another fleece/flannel blanket?  Yeah.  I felt guilty about that.  (It doesn't take much to make me feel guilty).  But the more I thought about it, the more the idea rang true.

So, starting at about 9:00 at night, I cut and pieced the top and trimmed the strips for the back.  The second day, I put the whole thing together and quilted it.

Denise loved it and has on multiple occasions called me to tell me that she loves it.  The first time, she called (maybe the day after she got it) and said she loved Andres' blanket. (She was in the process of an overseas adoption of a little deaf boy named Andres.)  I said I was glad, but I didn't make it for Andres.  I made it for her.  If she wanted to share it with Andres when he came, that was up to her, but it wasn't made for him.  A few days later she called me for another reason and again told me how much she loved it. 

Pieced back above.  Front fabrics below.  The colors are off - that coral color should be pink and the bottom left should be a grape purple.  Too much yellow in the photos.


Yes, she knows I started the other one for her, and no she doesn't mind.  In fact, many of the flannel fabrics in her top were ones she gave me once upon a time.