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!