After a fun two week vacation to Utah for my mom's wedding and some fun with friends and families I need to catch up on my blogs. I did this before I left but had no time to post it. So today I wanted to post how to make a patch twirl skirt.
Materials/Supplies
Sewing Machine
Coordinating Thread
3/4 inch elastic
Fabric (I used one of the bundles from JoAnn's Fabric which I believe is roughly 5 quarters of a yard. I was able to make this skirt, another skirt, and a dress using just the bundle.)
Measurements I used:
Squares - 3" x 3"
Bri's waist - 18" elastic
Waistband - 30" x 4"
First Tier - 15 squares (45")
Second Tier - 22 squares (66")
Third Tier - 33 squares (99")
NOTE: Each level is roughly 1.5 times the length of the previous tier. So if your waist measures at 25, times that by 1.5 and that's how wide your waistband should be.
Lay out your squares in the order that you want them. Make sure you like the layout. The general rule of them when making a twirl anything is for each layer to be 1.5 times longer than the previous layer.
Sew your square strips together. You can sew them right sides together for a cleaner look or wrong sides together for a scrappier look.
Hem your lowest strip layer. If you have a serger, you can do this by serging along the edge. (I also serged along all the bottom edges of the strips and both edges of the waistband to keep it from fraying like the front.) Iron it up and secure with a stitch. If no serger, iron up a quarter inch and then another quarter inch and secure with a straight stitch.
I serged mine and then secured them with a single stitch. You can just sew yours with a regular sewing machine if you don't have a serger.
Start with your lowest square strip layer. Sew a gathering stitch along the top. I do my gathering stitches by doing lowest tension and longest stitch lengths.
Gather by pulling the back string and bringing the fabric into a bunch.
Pin the bottom layer against the 2nd layer. I pinned the wrong side of my 3rd tier against the right side of the 2nd tier. You can do that, or you can pin the right sides together for a cleaner look.
Sew along the inside edge.
Sew along the inside so that when you are done it looks like this. Make sure you keep the gathers pulled so they don't bunch oddly.
Sew another gathering stitch across the top of the 2nd tier.
Gather.
Pin the wrong side of 2nd tier to the right side of 1st tier.
Sew again so it looks like this:
Serge or sew either ends of the waistband.
Fold it over the top of the waistband one inch and iron.
Stitch 1/8" from the top of the fold.
Sew 3/4" down from the top stitch.
Leave a gap on that bottom stitch so that you can run the elastic through.
Gather stitch and gather the top of 1st tier.
Pin wrong side of 1st tier along right side of the bottom of the waistband.
And stitch it.
Put a safety pin through your elastic.
Feed the elastic through the band.
Put the two ends together and stitch the elastic ends together.
Close up the gap in the waistband.
Shake it out and voila! A nice scrappy twirl skirt.
1 comment:
Gorgeous skirt. Thank you for the instructions. I will definitely make one for myself.
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