gathered skirt

I saw this tutorial on MADE and promptly put this on my list of to-dos. My kind of project: straight lines, no buttonholes or zips, looks cute and doesn't take forever to complete.


I decided to do the double layer skirt. I had some chambray left over from making the boys' shorts, so that became the bottom layer. And I used half a yard of a Riley Blake print for the top layer. I did make some tweaks to the tutorial. I didn't want to fold down two layers of cloth for the elastic casing because I thought all that cloth(four layers and the elastic!) bunched up would make it a little uncomfortable. And there are fewer things more frustrating than to make something for a fussy child who refuses to wear what I made! Instead, I made a tube casing for the elastic at the waist by sewing the two pieces of cloth right sides together, and then flipping it right side out and topstitching another line of stitching to create a casing for the elastic. I also made the top layer only two inches shorter than the bottom layer, even though the tutorial recommends a three inch difference, just because I wanted to use up more of the pretty print.


She looks happy enough to be wearing it, no? Noah is busy stuffing his face with ice cream in the background.

Now to make her a top to go with the skirt. I still have a mermaid iron-on match that she picked out to use, maybe on the pocket of a new top?