Okay, now that you have a handle on making a ruffle from Friday’s post, let’s put that new skill to work on a cute twirly skirt, yes?! Wheeeee!

First grab some fabric and waistband elastic…

I am using green microcord for the waistband and the hem, and an orange pattern for the body. And [since if you are like me, you ask] who has time for measurements?

Here’s how to figure how much fabric you need:

*For the elastic, “measure” it by holding it around your daughter’s waist–the amount you want is enough to go around her without tugging or overlapping, just right. Done and done.

*For the fabric waistband, you will want a little more width than the elastic, maybe a few inches, so it will be able to slide easily on. The length will need to be twice the elastic plus a half-inch to inch or so.

*For the body of the skirt, you will want about twice the width of the waistband fabric (or more–like three times the waistband fabric–if you want it super-ruffled and flouncy). The length will depend on the length of finished skirt you want–I like about eight inches of body fabric for my about-to-turn-two-year-old.

*For the hem, same width as the body fabric, and I like about twice the length of the finished hem I’m going for, so I can fold it way up to hem it.

First, ruffle one side of the body fabric by running one loose unlocked seam along the top, then pulling bottom thread to ruffle (if you’re not sure how to make a quick and easy fabric ruffle, please see this simple step-by-step tutorial).

You want your ruffled body fabric width to be about the same as your waistband fabric width.

Next, attach the ruffled top of your body piece to the bottom of your waistband piece by sewing right sides together.

When you unfold it, you have something like this: the waistband is now attached to the body of your skirt.

Then do the same thing again, this time attaching the bottom of the body piece to the top of the hem piece, right sides together.

Excellent! Now the hem is attached to the skirt, and you should have something that looks a little like this.

Next, fold the skirt in half left to right so that the two ends line up.

Sew along the open side and then trim the extra fabric.

It will look like this when turned right-side-out. You’re almost there!

Hem the skirt by folding it under twice and sewing all the way around.

Then do the same for the waistband, but inclose the closed loop of waist elastic as you go. [Sorry for the skirt switch… I forgot to take a photo of this step for the orange-green skirt… but I did take one for the aqua-brown skirt we made the other day… Still confused? I spell out my elastic waist shortcut in easy pictorial steps over here…]

And shazaam, you’re done! And yay: another cute little coordinating skirt for the non-scary-scarecrow shirt we made!

Now let’s twirl! Wheeeeeeeee!