Tulle Layered Ruffle Skirt

I've always loved the idea of a petticoat for my little girl, so I decided to make my own version of it. I know the picture isn't the greatest...couldn't get Sophie to stand still long enough to get a good picture, whatcha expect she's two!

Materials:
An old t-shirt
4 1/2 to 5 yards of Tulle, I used 4 different colors, so if you do that then 1 1/2 yard of each
3/4" elastic, measured to fit my little girls waist, so I used 19 inches
Scissors
Rotary cutter & board
Thread
Sewing Machine

First step is to cut the tulle.

You will need to cut the tulle into 4" strips.

I folded the tulle until it was about 7" long then used my rotary cutter to cut the tulle into strips. You will need 4 strips of tulle per layer. I did 3 rowsof each color, that's total of 12 strips of each color.

Ok, to make the base of the skirt. Take an old t-shirt (this is one I made at an "Eclipse" party when the book was being released, fun memories) anyway, take a t-shirt, measure how long you'd like the skirt to be and cut it using a rotary cutter. My skirt is 13" long, I made it a little long so my daughter can wear it for a few years.

Turn the top of the cut shirt down 1" and sew, leaving an opening to insert the elastic at the end.

Using the longest stitch on your machine, sew a gathering stitch right down the middle of the 4"strip of tulle.

Once you have sewn the gathering strip, pull on the bobbin thread to creat a gather.

Pin the gathered tulle onto the skirt. You will use four of these gathered pieces for one row. Space out the tulle into quarters of the skirt, two strips for the front of the skirt and two strips for the back.

Sew that gathered strip onto the skirt using a smaller stitch, then remove the pins. Repeating for each strip all the way around the bottom of the skirt!

There you have your first layer of tulle!

Continue gathering the tulle strips and sewing them onto the skirt, spacing them about 1" apart. You can mark these 1" intervals with a pencil before you start sewing or just eyeball it like I did.

When you sew on a new layer make sure you are holding down the tulle with both hands and guiding it through the machine. It can get a bit poofy!

Keep going with each row. I started with the bottom, the darkest pink and worked my way up to a light pink, then white.

The last white layer I sewed just below the waist where I would insert the elastic. Also, I gathered the last four pieces of white tulle along the top and not in the middle.

I pinned the last row on and sewed it in place.

I had measured my daughter's waist at 20", cut the elastic an inch shorter then her measurement and using a safety pin, gude the elastic through the waist hem. Sew the elastic together at the raw ends and even up the gathering.

There you have a completed Tulle Ruffle Skirt!

It was a pretty simple skirt to make, a little time consuming! I took Sophie out to the mall the next day and got a million compliments on her skirt!!

If you have questions please email me at note2lola@gmail.com

Turning Old into NEW!

I had this bridesmaid dress from my sister's wedding five years ago in my closet. The fabric is a satin pink...the brightest pink ever made, which is very pretty...but in limited amounts. :) My sister loves pink and I love her so I wore the pink.

I wanted to do some purging and was itching to sew and buying new fabric wasn't in the budget....
So with much thinking and many sleepless nights as I worked out a pattern in my head, this is the cute ruffle skirt I came up with!

I always, always use a pattern when I sew, but this time I wanted to be creative. I had a need to create something that was all mine. Sophie wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a picture of her in it. She loved her new skirt and I hope to get a picture of her in it soon!!

Don't worry, I didn't waste all the fabric not used in the skirt. Its all cut out ready to be made into fabric flower hair clips & headbands, which I hope to have up soon on my etsy site!!