Is your weather as lovely there as ours is here? Doesn’t it make you just want to sew something delightful & sunny & whimsical? Yeah, me too…

So here is a tutorial for a lovely little pieced peasant skirt:

Now, as you already know, if you are a strict measurement and perfect line sort of girl, this is not for you, but if you are a get-it-done-before-naptime’s-over gal, you’re in the right place!

First gather your supplies:

fabric: 2 strips–about 45″ wide & 6″ long, and 3 strips each of five fabrics–about 10-12″ long & 4″ wide (the length of these 15 strips will determine the length of the skirt—the finished skirt will be about 3″ longer–so adjust for the height of your child or desired skirt length)

3/4″ elastic (enough to reach around your daughter’s waist without stretching)

sewing machine & scissors

Okay, put your babies down for a nap, and let’s do this!

First lay out your short fabric strip stacks in the pattern you want the skirt to be (you can see I tweaked it a bit from below left to right so I had the pattern I wanted).

Take the first two strips and lay them right-sides together, then sew them together with a straight stitch (be sure to lock your stitches by sewing backwards for a stitch or two at the beginning and end of each of these). Then unfold the two pieces and you will have two connected strips (below)…

…Then repeat that about fifteen times to connect all your short strips, laying the next strip right-side-down on what you’ve already sewn (below left) until you have sewn all the short strips together.

{click thumbnails to enlarge}

Now, you’ll have something like this:

Next, lay your two long strips along the top & bottom of your skirt (you can trim off the extra length now or later).

To attach [what will be] the hem and waistband, put those pieces right-sides-together and sew a straight stitch across the top & bottom making sure to line them up with the shortest short strips (you can see above that the green strips are the shortest, so I will line up my long strips with those–below).

Next, fold-in-half the whole assembly right sides together (below left) and sew a straight stitch to join the two edges. You will end up with a “tube” that looks something like this (below right).

I sew my hem by folding over the fabric once (towards the inside) and sewing it all the way around, then folding it over again and sewing it again… Here it is being sewn the first time around (below left). This is where the REAL seamstresses cringe and talk of pinning and ironing seams… but remember: we’re on a naptime sewing schedule here!  😉  This way–I find–is easy, fast, and effective!

For the waistband, just sew it once around for now (bottom right) before carrying on to the next step.

{click thumbnails to enlarge}

Now you have something like this (below)–the bottom seam is done and the top waistband is sewn over once and ready for the elastic.

“Measure” the elastic by holding a strip around your daughter’s waist and cutting it to wrap around her once without stretching. Then overlap the elastic onto itself and sew it to itself to form a closed loop (below).

Next, fold the elastic under the waistband, being sure to fold the fabric over enough to completely cover the elastic band (below left then left middle). Sew around the waistband seam the second time (you already did the first in a previous step) making sure not to sew on the elastic (below middle). When you seem to run out of elastic (long before you run out of dress, below right middle), simply lock the fabric in place by lowering the needle through it and pull the elastic through your “tunnel” until you have enough elastic to keep sewing (below right). Your fabric will bunch behind the part you’re sewing as you pull the elastic through (below right), but no worries: repeat lock & pull as needed until you make it all the way around the waistband.

{click thumbnails to enlarge}

And before you can say “bob’s your uncle,” you’re done!

Wheeeeee!

{Now, we need a whole outfit… So click over here for the fabric flower-embellished shirt tutorial.}

Add a pair of leggings if there’s a chill in the air, and let your little lady get out there and dance!

Can’t wait to hear what you create! Have fun, and happy sewing!