A Skirt for the Ages | Simple Sewing

My 2-year-old is suddenly all about skirts. Skirts, skirts, skirts! She needs a skirt to dance around the living room and she needs a skirt to play trains in. I decided to whip up this simple faux-wrap skirt to add to her ever-growing skirt repertoire and realized that this very easy project can be modified to any size of skirt-wearer. Skirts!

By:  Jodi

Tools and Materials Required:

– sewing machine

– thread

– pins

– material

– sewing elastic

– sewing scissors

– ruler/measuring tape

– ribbons and iron-ons, if so desired.

Time Required: 1 to 2 hours (or less if you’re really speedy).

Tutorial:

1. Get your material cut to size. You want material that is about 3 inches longer than your desired length (when held to waist), as this will cover your hemming. You will also want it to wrap about 1 and 3/4 times around you (or your kid, etc.).

2. Fold all your edges over about a 1/2″, then a 1/2″ again and pin. Hem your seam (on the sewing machine. No need to do any fancy hand-stitching) all the way around. I then sewed a pink ribbon down the side of the skirt that will show on the outside

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3. Fold your material so that about 1/3 of it overlaps another 1/3. Those overlapped pieces should be pinned and sewn at the top hem. This will give you a tube of material with an overlapped panel at the front.

4. Fold your top hem down about 1″ (or more, depending on the size of your elastic), pin and , starting from the back, sew all around except for the end, where you should leave a couple of inches.

5. Now it’s time to put in the elastic! I used the thinner elastic, because it won’t give you as much trouble (i.e. twisting up and driving you nuts). First, make sure you measure the elastic around your/whomever’s waist, pulling it as tight as you’ll want it when you’re wearing your skirt. Find a safety pin that’s small enough to fit inside your waist-band, but large enough to be able to get a good grip on. Pin the safety pin on the end of your elastic and feed it through the waistband (much sure you hold on to the end!). Once the elastic has been fed through, sew the ends of the elastic together and then sew up the space that you left in the waistband hem

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6. Sew or iron on any little extras, and you’re done! One quick and easy skirt.