The 15 Minute Little Girl Skirt Tutorial

A while ago when I needed to go to my local quilt shop for some fabric, I rewarded bribed my 4 year old daughter with some fabric of her own for good behavior while in the store.  She picked out this pink Cupcake Toss Fabric by Timeless Treasures and told me she wanted a skirt.

Now, I am not a seamstress by any means, but I figured that I could make a quick and easy little girl skirt.  I took some pictures along the way in case you wanted to make one too :)

Materials needed:

• about 1/3 yard of fabric for a 4 year old, older/younger children will need more/less
• about 2 feet of elastic (I used 1/2 inch non-roll elastic from JoAnn)
• Basic sewing supplies (sewing machine, thread, etc)

I used 1/3 yard to make the skirt.  I found that the 42" width of the fabric was large enough to go around my for my daughter's waist with a good amount of gathering (she is 4 and weighs about 32 pounds) and the 12" length was plenty to make the hemmed skirt.  I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric before beginning these easy steps:

1.  Trim off the salvages and square up the top and bottom edges of the fabric. (In the picture below, the fabric is folded in half with both of the salvages on the right hand side.)

2.  Sew along the trimmed salvage edges, right sides of the fabric together to form a short tube of fabric.  (I do not own a serger so I used a simple zigzag stitch along the edge of the seam to finish the seam.)

3.  Form the top elastic channel: With the wrong side of the fabric tube facing outward, fold over the fabric about 1/2 inch all around the skirt, press.  Fold over an additional 1 and 1/2 inches and press again.  Sew along the fold of the fabric leaving a 1-2 inch opening.

4.  Hem the skirt:  Hold the skirt up to your little one and determine the desired length of the skirt. With the wrong side of the fabric tube facing outward, fold over the fabric about 1 inch all around the skirt, press.  Fold over the fabric again to the desired skirt length and press again.  Sew along the fold of the fabric.  (I hemmed my daughter's skirt a total of about 3 inches.)  

5.  Adding the elastic:  Approximate the amount of elastic needed by measuring around the waist of your little girl and adding about 6 inches.  Pin a safety pin through one end of the elastic and pin another safety pin through the other end of the elastic and the skirt (this will prevent the end of the elastic from getting pulled into the elastic channel).  Thread the elastic through the channel and secure the ends of the elastic by sewing the ends together or tying them in a knot.  Sew the gap in the elastic channel closed.

6.  Give the skirt to your little one and bask in the praise of being the best mom/grandma/aunt ever!

I am very happy to link up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.

I am also linking up with the linky party Tips and Tutorials Tuesday over at the Late Night Quilter's blog.