Summer Skirts 5 - The Circular Skirt (and fractions thereof)

This is one of my favorite kinds of skirts - the circular skirt.

A full circular skirt is a seamless donut-shaped piece of fabric.

You cut it out, attach elastic at the waist, and hem the bottom

and it's done. By virtue of their round shape, circular skirts

are cut on the bias, so they drape nicely. Because of the

amount of fabric involved, they also have a lot of

movement, and are perfect for dance, which my little girls

do a lot of (at least in a dress-up sort of way). I made them

quite a few for their dress-up box last Christmas.

Mass-production mania. I loved it.

If you are sewing for a little person, it's good to pick a

soft material that has weight. Something like chiffon, georgette, fleece and some cottons will work well. Even thicker fabrics like denim would work, except

they might weigh down a small child,

so maybe save those for yourself.

All you need is about a yard of fabric and some elastic

to make a child's knee-length skirt like this:

I used fold-over elastic (FOE) which wraps over the raw

edge of the fabric like double-fold bias tape

and is then sewn on.

Here's how to make an elastic-waist circular skirt:

Step 1

• Measure the hip of the wearer, which is the biggest part of the lower half of the body. This is not difficult to locate (sadly, for most of us).
• Call this measurement B.

Step 2

• Decide on the length of your skirt.
• Call this measurement L.

Step 3

• Locate the center of the fabric and cut a circle of circumference B+2". I usually fold the fabric into quarters to locate the center, and cut out a quadrant, then unfold it.

Step 4

• Measure a distance L from the edge of this circle, all around the circle, in radiating lines. This will give you a bigger concentric circle that forms the bottom hem of the skirt.
• Cut out this bigger circle so you get a donut-shaped piece of fabric.

Step 5

• Sew on the FOE on the waistband. Stretch the FOE as you sew, not the fabric.

Note: if you are using regular elastic and making an elastic casing, remember to include more seam allowance at the inner circle for it.

Step 6

• Zig-zag or serge the bottom edge of the skirt and fold up to make a narrow hem. Or make a rolled hem (especially good for fabrics like chiffon that fray easily).

Note: It is often a good idea to hang your skirt (like on a hanger) for a day, especially if it is a long skirt and made of stretchy fabric, before trimming and sewing the bottom hem. This is because the bias-cut-ness of the fabric makes it stretch in all directions. So you may have cut a perfect circle when you started but find the hem is horribly uneven and pointy in parts when you get to finishing the hem. When I made the short chiffon dance skirts in the picture, I skipped this step because they were short, lightweight-fabric skirts and the hem was sufficiently even.

There are times when we want the twirl of a circular skirt

but not the fullness. Or when we don't have a large enough

piece of fabric. In such situations, you can also make semi-

circular or some-fraction-of-a-circle skirts.

Here is a two-thirds-of-a-circle skirt that

was part of another Halloween outfit:

Instead of being elasticized, the waist of the skirt was

attached to the bodice and a long zipper sewn

into the back of the dress.

If you want a fitted circular skirt, the "donut hole" should fit

the waist of the wearer, not the hip (since there is no elastic

to hold it up!) and you need to cut open the "donut" to

insert a zipper or some other fastening.

If you want a fraction-of-a-circle skirt, the "donut hole"
opening for the waist should fit either the hip (if it's
elasticized) or the waist (you'll need a zipper) of the wearer.

That's a crazy lot of wordy stuff to make sense of, so

here's a printable sheet of diagrams:

Note: I usually use a 3/4" seam allowance for a zipper seam.

So if I'm making a fitted circular skirt, I'd make the circumference

of the donut hole (A+1.5") to include the seam allowance.

OK, here's something I did that turned out rather tragically.

Try not to do this if you can, OK? Emily had a dance recital

early this year, see? And I wanted to make her a recital skirt.

I thought I would be clever-thrifty and use scrap costumey

fabrics I had at home. I had enough pink satin for a three-

quarter-circular skirt and waistband. I did not have enough

organza for the same. So I thought I'd do a regular gathered

skirt with the organza and layer it on top of the satin circular

underskirt. I envisioned a lovely, swirly satiny thing

with a sheer puffy outer layer.

This is the sad product of joining a rectangle to a circle:

All the twirl inherent in a bias-cut circular skirt was

completely restricted by the stiff straight gathered outer

layer. Emily still wears it now for dress-up but it never

made it to her dance recital. Organza for a dance skirt!

What was I thinking? Might as well have used oilcloth.

Whoo. Long post, considering how easy this skirt

is to make. Skirt #6 is the classic wrap skirt-

shorter post. Check back soon!

Following Up With The Ethical Issue

Back again!

Thank you all so much for the thoughtful comments! I continue to be amazed by the kindness and empathy of people I have never physically met. I am grateful for the encouragement and the time it must have taken you to actually write out your thoughts. But mostly I am grateful for the other issues that came out of that original situation, and the honest questions you raised.

I first want to apologize to anyone who was suddenly thrown into a guilt-frenzy after reading that post because they might have used a photo from my site and linked to me but never asked. I'm not going to hex you. What I never knew doesn't bother me. If you've used a picture of my child, please remove it (unless I've OK-ed it). All else is negotiable and most of it is fine. I'm also sorry if I've made everyone feel like they need to walk on eggshells as a result of this issue being broached.

One thing (of many) good that came out of the post is some of you sending me email messages to ask about copyright stuff. I wish I knew enough to write about what's right and wrong. I only know what I would and wouldn't like for my blog. So I thought I'd make a hopefully helpful list or two. Some of these are rather silly and self-explanatory, but they made me laugh when I listed them, so I left them in:

Things that are perfectly OK with me; no permission needed from me:

• Putting ikatbag in your blogroll.
  
• Subscribing to ikatbag in your aggregator e.g. google reader
  
• Linking to ikatbag from your blog in some list, say, in your sidebar e.g. "Bizarre Blogs By The Mentally Unsound"
  
• Linking to a particular ikatbag post in some list, say, in your sidebar e.g. "Bizarre Projects That Question A Person's Sanity"
  
• Linking to a particular ikatbag post in your post e.g. "ikatbag made this bizarre thing today out of chicken wire, corn starch and a plastic pollypocket doll - check it out here"
  
• Using the picture of my banner (the thing that has my blog name at the top of the blog) on your site and linking to it.
  
• Writing (no pictures) about ikatbag or any of my projects or posts in your blog.
  
• Calling the blog ikatbag or Ikatbag or Ikat Bag or ikat bag.
  
• Calling me LiEr or Lier or Li Er or Li er. Or just "she". Or "her".
  

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Here are things that are perfectly OK with me if you drop me an email to say so. Of course I'd prefer being asked beforehand but I also don't mind being informed after. If in the off-chance that yours is a blog I'd rather not be associated with e.g. one with adult-content, I reserve the right to ask you to remove my content.

• Posting/publishing any of my pictures.
  
• Posting/publishing any portion of my tutorial instructions.
  
• Posting/publishing any portion of the prose I wrote e.g. the Ethical Issue post or the How To Buy Fabric With Small Children one.
  

Things that are not OK with me

• Posting/publishing any of my pictures without informing me.
  
• Posting/publishing prose I wrote without informing me.
  
• Posting/publishing any portion of my tutorial instructions (including printables) without informing me.
  
• Writing untrue things about the projects or my blog, e.g. "ikatbag made a butter sculpture of Malibu Barbie!" (when it was, say, made by the local confectioner down the road).
  
• Suggesting in your blog that readers make stuff from my instructions to sell.
  

Here we enter the big fuzzy grey area: selling.

Hm.

I'm going way off tangent for a while and talk a bit about ideas. The root issue (the iffy part of it anyway) of copyright, as I see it, is the idea behind a project. It is completely possible for several people to all have exactly the same idea, especially if is related to a current hot craft thing out there. We all get some of our ideas from somewhere, if we are honest enough to admit it. Sometimes we use this inspiration as is, and make the very thing we saw somewhere else. Now if that thing were copyrighted by its maker and we were to sell it, that would be wrong. That's clear enough. If we took one aspect of this inspiration and created some new version of it and sold it, that's iffy. It's hard to say how much of it is copied and how much of it is inspired, isn't it? And are all sources equal? If the idea was from a book, or a store catalog rather than the internet or someone's blog, would that be less wrong? What if the idea was from something we glanced at fleetingly in the window of an airport store as we were leaving a foreign country we never intended to revisit? The spectrum is infinite. Worse, if we had an absolutely original idea, then saw a similar thing somewhere else and realized to our horror that while we were original, we weren't that unique after all, can we still sell the thing we make from that idea?

Clear as mud, isn't it?

Now this is going to be different for each blogger/entrepreneur, so don't take my word as law. I will, however, say this for myself: when in doubt, I'll email the person whose idea it is. If that person says, "bless you for wanting to make 50 of my handbags from that pattern you bought/my tutorial, to raise funds for abused children! Yes!", everybody wins. Or maybe that person might have a special arrangement (like a seller's license) to sell things made from their pattern. And if that person says no, all I've lost is one idea that wasn't mine to start with.

Trust your instincts and conscience. Talk it over with a friend (I did - thank you, K!) and don't live in fear. When in doubt, ask. There are a lot of friendly, obliging people out there, I've found.

What I'm also going to do is link this post to my copyright notice so people can read more about what is and isn't OK with me if they want.

If you have comments on this, or if I've left out something (because I'm getting sleepy again!) that you want to add, please share it in the comments or email me!

As a last word on the circumstances that started this whole discussion - thank you all for wishing that the issue get resolved. That would be nice, wouldn't it? But you know, I don't need it to be. I spoke up and I know here's where I let go :) If some of you have found that blog, may I ask that you let it be? I mulled over posting that one sentence in case it identified the blog in a google search (but I googled it and nothing happened, phew). Again, if anyone has questions, you can comment here or email me and I might comment back or email you. I don't plan to post again on this same issue because, really, why do a pictureless, projectless post when we can all be making stuff?

And so, gentle readers, we resume Summer Skirts!

Summer Skirts 4 - The Fitted Panel Skirt

Moving away from the gathered waist for a bit, here is a

fitted panel skirt. Unlike the gathered version which is

composed of vertical rectangles, this one is made of

trapezium-shaped panels that are narrower at the top

(waist) and wider at the bottom. And since there is

no stretchy elastic, this needs a zipper.

A bit more work, but us folks with fuller hips look a

little slimmer in something like this, than the gathered

version. Anything that streamlines the region that once

contained an entire baby (or three), we like.

To make this, we are actually going to dip our toes in the

murky waters known as drafting. And we are going to

survive. And we are going to feel very clever after.

Here's the printable instruction sheet. Lots of diagrams.

The main idea is that the skirt is made of identical

trapezium panels. And because it is no longer a

one-size-fits-all skirt, the dimensions of this trapezium

panel will be unique to the wearer. Fortunately, there are

no darts because the panels themselves will allow for

the fullness of the wearer's figure. But there will (as

mentioned) be a zipper, which fits neatly

between two panels like this:

Let's get started!

For convenience, this will be a 6-panel skirt.

Step 1

• Measure the waist and call it A.
• Add 1" for ease of movement.
• Divide this by 12.

Step 2

• Measure the hip (widest part of lower body - not difficult to locate, sadly) and call it B.
• Add 2" for ease of movement.
• Divide this by 12.

Step 3

• Measure the vertical distance between the waist and the hip. This is called the hip level, and we will abbreviate it to HL.

Step 4

• Determine how long you want the skirt to be.
• Measure this from the waist and call it L.

Step 5

• Get a sheet of butcher paper or newspaper and fold it in half.

Step 6

• Draw the pattern shown in the instruction sheet with the measurements you obtained in Steps 1-4.
• Extrapolate (i.e. continue drawing the rest of the trapezium shape) using a long ruler, from the hip measurement to the bottom of the pattern.

Step 7

Unfold the pattern to give you a symmetrical trapezium whose

• top edge is (A + 1)/6
• widest width is (B + 2) /6, a distance HL below the top edge
• length is L

This is your pattern! You drafted it! Brilliant person, you!

Step 8

You are now going to cut 6 panels from your fabric(s) using this pattern.

• Four of the panels will have seam allowances of 1/2" all around.
• Two of the panels (the back ones which are connected to the zipper) will have seam allowances of 1/2" for three sides, and 3/4" for the side that will have the zipper sewn to. Remember that these two panels will be mirror images of each other.

Step 9

• Sew together the two back panels first (the ones which will have the zipper). Connect the zipper by whatever method you usually use to attach zippers.

Step 10

• Sew the other four panels to these to form the skirt.

Step 11

• Check the length of the skirt, trim the bottom hem if it is uneven or has pointy bits, and then sew the hem by whatever method you like (serge, topstitch, zigzag, free-fraying etc).

Step 12

• Make the waistband, if this is a stand-alone skirt. The simplest waistband is just a single fold topstitched down. Or trim off the seam allowance and finish the waist with bias tape. Or sew a real waistband with interfacing.

This skirt was made several years ago as part of Emily's

halloween costume*. The workmanship was shoddy

because I foolishly believed then that fleece (October

is frigid here) edges did not require finishing.

Here's the entire dress

and her wearing it, to show you the flare of the skirt

and the clean, unbulky fit at her waist.

*Oops. OK, maybe this one wasn't originally a summer skirt. 

But change the fleece to something cottony and it will 

work for the warm weather, see?

Next: The circular skirt (and fractions thereof)!

Quite a different style of making, and very, very easy.

Plus lots of options to try out fabrics you

normally might not dabble with!

An Ethical Issue

Well, good evening, everyone!

I was all set to post Skirt #4 tonight but thought I'd interrupt the series to throw something out to you. Two reasons for this. One, it's cathartic for me because it's been at the back of my mind the last couple of days and I'd like to exorcise it. Two, I have a feeling this (in some form) has probably happened to some of you and I'd love to hear/read what you think about it. Touchy issue. Therefore lots to discuss!

Well, here's the story - recently one of my projects was featured in someone else's blog. This is usually a compliment and although the person didn't write beforehand to ask if she could use the photo, she did link back to my blog and she was nice enough to leave me a comment to say so. So off I went to check it out (because I am narcissistic).

A short paragraph of kind words in her post, and then wham! this sentence: I'll bet these would sell like hotcakes if you were to make up a few and put them into your customer waiting area*.

Hmm. I almost missed it, actually. But that word "sell", you know, it jumped out at me and I went back to re-read it. And then the wheels in my head began turning and I spent the next hour or so mulling it over while changing diapers and performing my other Mother tasks around the house.

Eventually I sorted my thoughts out and decided I was uncomfortable with it for several reasons. I'm going to tell you all what I think first (since you are my poor captive audience anyway) and then open the floor to you.

First, this particular project that got featured is not one of my original creations. I don't even know where it originated because I first discovered it more than 10 years ago. But I know that it still exists in various forms, manufactured by several different organizations today. All that said, the tutorial is all mine. I don't know of any other tutorials online for it but that is probably because I have shockingly poor skills at googling, to be honest. Therefore I feel bad for me and for the original creators of this product, that this person should be encouraging her readers to sell them.

Second, I am well aware that the copyright notices we all uncomfortably put in our sidebars are sadly ignored by more readers than we'd like to think about. I knew that when I started this blog. I knew that when I was first sewing for business 15 years ago. So I am not surprised that, thanks to the internet, people all over the known universe are reading online tutorials, making things with the instructions, and selling them at craft fairs, shops and to anyone who will buy them. These are hard economic times - I don't want to judge anyone. And even if these things weren't made from other people's tutorial instructions, there is a finite number of saleable craft items in the world, and chances are, if you genuinely originally thought of a reversible-skirt-cum-parachute-cum-fabric-flower-cum-earth-friendly-grocery-tote, someone else in a different longitude probably did too, just as genuinely originally. I can't tell you the number of times I've read a post on some creative wonder's blog and said, "Darn it, that idea was at the tip of my brain and now here it is, all conceptualized by someone else and I can't now claim to have it be completely, originally, all mine! Oh I wish I hadn't read this post! But by gum, she did such a fantastic job with it, I am glad I did." Ever had that happen to you? There is so much amazing talent out there.

So back to the issue at hand - I feel bad that people might be making stuff from my instructions to sell, even though I begged them in my copyright notice not to. But I can live with that. That's why I continue to post my tutorials, silly! I also know that I can't stop them selling - and I'm OK with that. The thing that was really making me uncomfortable was this person blatantly encouraging her readers to make stuff from other people's tutorials to sell. I have to be honest - the more I mulled over it, the more I knew that for my own sanity, I had to speak up. So I wrote an email to this person to thank her for linking to me but that I preferred if she didn't encourage her readers to make this item to sell. No reply. Not unexpected, so I left a comment on that post in her blog to say I left her an email (just in case she doesn't check her email). It's been more than two days and she's put up two new posts but I haven't heard from her yet. And that sentence in her post is still there. Sigh.

Here's my stand: Life is too important to grind to a halt for something like this. It's not trivial and yet it is. It's annoying and I'm a little sad that it happened but a part of me feels very proud that I tried to be assertive and say my peace. I've lived here in the US almost 4 years now but I'm still trying to learn the cultural ropes - and folks here are waaaaaay more outspoken than we are in Singapore! It's more crucial to me that I did something about it than that the problem actually got solved, you know? Solve this one, and tomorrow, four hundred and nineteen other bloggers might spring some new form of plagiarism on me. C'est la vie.

So there you are, lovely readers and loyal fans. I'd love to hear what you think. Doesn't have to be about this particular blogger's daftness (and no, I will not be revealing her identity) - it could be about copyright in general, or selling, or craft fairs or just the general ethics of protecting ideas. Way back when I was in business, I struggled with this idea-protection issue and I'm still not quite sure what to do with it, short of patents. Which is why none of the bags that I sewed to sell have appeared on this blog yet, although you've seen some of the wallets. Hideous selection of 1990s fabric is one reason (I am so ashamed), but mostly am not quite ready to have the bags scrutinized and copied.

Am sleepy again! How midnight does creep up on a person. Thank you all for letting me air some innards here tonight. Summer skirt posting will resume tomorrow, small children permitting.

*Yes, I used this sentence from her post without her permission. I must now be nailed to a cross.

Summer Skirts 3 - The Gathered Panel Skirt

Continuing with the gathered skirts theme,

here is the gathered panel skirt.

Same shape, same style as the previous classic

gathered skirt and the tiered skirt, this has its

fabric pieces in vertical panels, joined together to

make the main rectangular body of the skirt.

There are so many ways to put together the combination

of panels! For instance, you could use different fabrics

for all the panels. Or as few as just two, and alternate

them, like I did. A gentle caution: mayhap a good idea to

avoid fabrics that are too contrasting? Unless you don't

mind looking a bit um... hot-air-balloonish. I'm just sayin'.

You all know by now that I am not a big fan of printed

cotton. I don't have designer fabrics in my stash. I don't

even know who the Big Names are in fabric design.

Except maybe Orla. I quite like Orla but I can't actually

find her fabric, so I end up hacking into her tablelinen.

From Target, no less. Does IKEA count? I buy some of my

fabric from Walmart. And I am not ashamed. I would

be totally happy to have just solids in my stash and then

dress them up, like with the princess tent that you all

said such nice, kind things about.

But textured fabric! Now that I have a weakness for.

The two blue panel fabrics aren't true solids because

they have little bits of design woven into them. The

lighter one is another ikat! Love ikat.

The horizontal band is an old, old IKEA upholstery

fabric, and it is printed.

OK, enough rambling about fabric.

Here's the photo-less tutorial for this panel skirt:

Step 1

• As with the earlier two skirts, measure the waist of the wearer and call it A.
• Decide on the length of the skirt you want and call it H.

The final rectangular piece of fabric that will become your skirt will have dimensions:

-Length 2A+1" seam allowance

-Height H+ 2 " seam allowance.

So for Emily's 21.5" waist, her 12" long skirt would be from a final rectangle 44" x 14".

Step 2

• Decide how many panels you want. I am often constrained by the dimensions of my scraps. But maybe you will make your skirt from a lovely, new, huge piece of fabric. For this blue skirt, I used 10 panels. If you are alternating two fabrics for the panels, pick an even number of panels.

Step 3

• Divide 2A by the number of panels to give you the width of each panel.
• Add 1" seam allowance to that to give you the width of panel to cut.

With Emily's skirt, each panel was then about 5.5" x 14".

Step 4

• Cut the 10 panels out of the fabric(s).

Step 5

• Using 1/2" seam allowance, lay panels right sides facing, and join the long edges
• Zigzag the raw edges. With a serger, this can be done in one step.
• Join all 10 panels to make a large rectangle (like the one in the second picture).

Step 6

• Add other details, like a horizontal band of a different fabric, if you like.

Step 7

• Sew up the rectangle as you would the classic gathered skirt, add elastic, and hem.

I think that of all the gathered skirts I'd made for

the girls, this one is my favorite. All blue, textured

fabric, ikat.... all the things I love. If I had big

enough scraps, I'd make one for me!

And thus ends the Gathered Skirts Trilogy.

Essentially, they are the same skirt, only the fabric pieces

are assembled in different ways - a solid piece for the

classic gathered skirt, horizontally for the tiered skirt, and

vertically for the paneled skirt. If you want to combine

all of this, you can do a patchwork skirt like the gorgeous

one in blueprints. Perfect way to use up square scraps,

of which I have none.

We'll continue with the paneled skirt idea in the next post -

but no gathers! So un-tall, un-willowy, people older than

5 years old and who prefer a tailored

lower-body sillhouette have hope!

Summer Skirts 2 - The Tiered Skirt

Only one photo today and the rest is all text (how ghastly).

The tiered skirt is a variation of the gathered skirt.
It is made of horizontal bands of fabric that are purposely
longer than they should be so each band can be gathered
to fit the band above. And the topmost band is gathered-
by-elastic to fit the wearer's waist. See?

This is a useful skirt to make when you are stuck with
long narrow strips of scraps. This pink tiered skirt looks
remarkably like the princess pavillion tent because
those are the leftover bits. And I do enjoy getting rid
of pink scraps as quickly as I can to make
room for other, more superior colors.

Again, because there are many tutorials out there already
(and I will shamelessly repeat this excuse in the next few
posts), I won't be including photographic instructions here.
What I will do is give you the dimensions of the fabric
pieces you need, and send you off googling the detailed
step-by-steps if you still need them.

Step 1

Decide how many tiers/bands you want. Pick a number greater than 2 to make it worth your while.

E.g. For Emily's skirt, I picked 3, because it is such a tiny skirt!

Step 2

Decide on the length of the skirt.

E.g. For Emily, this was 12". See the earlier post for an explanation.

Step 3

Measure the wearer's waist.

E.g. For Emily, this was 21.5".

Step 4

Determine the height of each band : Divide the length of the skirt in step 2 by the number of bands in Step 1. If this does not give you a whole number, add the extra inches to the bottom tier(s).

E.g. For Emily's skirt, I would be working with 3 bands, each 4" high (finished dimensions).

Step 5

Cut as many rectangles as bands needed. So for Emily's skirt, I cut 3 rectangles. Each one was longer than the one above it. How much longer is up to you. I found that if each rectangle was about 1.5 times longer than the one above it, you'll get some decent gathers.

You'll need to include seam allowances, so add 1/2" all round, except for the topmost edge of the skirt, where the elastic casing will be. Here, add 2" instead of 1/2", so there will be enough fabric to fold over into a casing for 1" elastic.

Aaaaaaaand here is where I give up writing text
instructions and send you off to make your own
skirt. But I also remembered seeing a tutorial on
one of my favorite tutorial sites, blueprints, (previously
Just Tutes) on making a tiered skirt. So I went and
found that for you. Or you can wait till the end of
the series and use my cheat sheet.

Next: The gathered panel skirt!

Summer Skirts 1 - The Classic Gathered Skirt

Happy Independence Day!

We are spending the weekend at the girls' grandparents'
home, so I am posting from my very slow laptop.

But I am excited to start two new series(es) on summer
clothes that I've been making for the two older girls.
This first one is all about skirts! The plan is to do about
6 different kinds of skirts, and then do a cheat sheet
for the whole lot at the end. Sound good? They are so
easy to make that I am almost tempted to use the
expression "whip up" in the same sentence. Almost.
But because I was using up scraps and old bedlinen,
a silly lot of time was spent digging into my badly-
organized stash and experimenting with dimensions
and trims and color combinations.



But let's get started, shall we?

Here's the simplest of all sewn skirts - the classic
gathered skirt. In its simplest form, it is a rectangle
sewn into a tube, with one edge elasticized.

There are probably hundreds of tutorials on the internet
that show you how to make this, so I won't be repeating
the instructions here. I will, however, just tell you
how to get the dimensions of the rectangle of fabric.

Step 1
Measure waist of wearer. The waist is just above the navel.
Call this measurement A.
E.g. Emily's was 21.5".


Step 2
Multiply this roughly by two to get 2A but it doesn't have to be exact.
E.g. For Emily, this will be 43" but I used 40" just because I liked a round number. No other reason.


Step 3
Measure the length of the skirt you want. Call this B.
E.g. For Emily, I thought a skirt that ended just above her knee would be sufficiently modest. The distance from her waist to just-above-her-knee was 12".


Step 4
Now include all the seam allowances you need and cut a rectangle of fabric with these dimensions:

• Length of rectangle: 2A + 1".

(1/2" seam allowance for each edge in the seam).

• Height of rectancle: B + 2".

(1/2" bottom hem allowance plus 1.5" elastic-casing-allowance for top).


Step 5
Sew side seam.

Step 6
Hem bottom edge.

Step 7
Sew elastic casing for 1" elastic. Leave opening for inserting elastic.
See my old shorts tutorial for pictures for Steps 7 and 8.

Step 8
Insert elastic with safety pin, sew elastic ends together and sew up casing opening.

Beyond that, everything is embellishment.

Here's a pocket variation for the girls' 4th of July skirts:

Before sewing up the side seam of the rectangle, I sewed
on the decorative band at the bottom and two pockets.

Each pocket is fully-faced, meaning I cut a facing in

the same shape as the pocket, sewed the two pieces

together and turned the whole double-layered thing

right side out. This means there are no raw edges apart

from the parts of the pocket to be enclosed in the

skirt seams. Specifically, the pocket on the left has this

unfinished top edge which will be enclosed in the

elastic casing later, and the pocket on the right has the

same unfinished top edge and an unfinished
side edge, where it will be enclosed in the side seam.

Top-stitch the band and pockets on.


Two skirts finished (including dragging the ironing board
out of storage and waiting for ancient suspicious-brand
iron to heat up) in about an hour and a half.

Next up: the Tiered Skirt (the pink thing on the left).