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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

easy ruffle skirts for summer

Can’t help it. This sunny weather makes me want to sew skirts and sweetie loves to wear them. Unfortunately, she doesn’t like to pose for pictures so a little M&M bribe was in order. I am in love with this free Oliver + S tutorial. It is so easy to follow and really quick to whip up. I decided to make it a bit more frou frou by adding some fun ruffles.

Basic Ruffle Instructions
Before adding the elastic waist to the skirt, I marked the skirt in 1 ½ inch intervals to help me see where to sew on my ruffles. I then took a contrasting fabric and cut them into 1 ½ inch pieces, selvage to selvage (about 44 inches). You need about two of these pieces per ruffle tier on your skirt. I then used my serger to finish the edges of my ruffles so they won’t fray. If you like the frayed look you may want to skip this step. If you don't have a serger, you can either zig zag or overcast stitch your ruffle pieces with your sewing machine.


Next, using my sewing machine and some tweezers, I scrunched up the ruffles as I sewed them down to the skirt using my marked lines. (This keeps your fingers out from under the needle!) Once the ruffles were on, I added the elastic. I made this skirt a little big for my girl because I want her to be able to wear it longer than a month—kids grow so fast!


Inspired by this tutorial from Pink Picket Fence, I decided to make a similar skirt using tulle. I cut my tulle pieces a little wider and I layered them for a fuller look. Again, I just scrunched up the tulle as I went. I love how full this skirt is. Either of these skirts would be super cool for bigger girls and adults, too!

22 comments:

  1. SO cute, love the first one and adore the tule one, lol

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  2. Absolutely Darling! I linked to this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com

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  3. Love them both-- So sweet : )

    Thank you for sharing!

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  4. Those skirts are darling (so is your daughter!).

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  5. I've been wanting to make one of these for a while - thanks for the how to!

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  6. If that isn't the cutest skirt I've seen. Not so cute that I'm going to have another child....but really darn cute!!! :)

    Kelly

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  7. Can you do a post on this tweezer ruffle method you just mentioned?

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  8. I am in love. I have a 5 month old. I can't wait until she is wee bit older for me to start making clothes for her. But you are making me want to start earlier!

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  9. Wow, this looks great! I love both skirts. I'm really on a big ruffle kick right now, these are a dream come true :-D!

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  10. SOOOO CUTE!! I'm loving both the skirts specially the one with tulle=)

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  11. goodness---those are cute skirts--only not sure my daughter would wear one, so might have to make one for myself!

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  12. The skirts are just adorable and what a little cutie for a model.
    So precious!!
    Ruth

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  13. wow...i clicked on the inspiration link for the tulle skirt...i never would have guessed (i had seen that link before - not impressed)....yours is amazing!

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  14. So incredibly cute!!! I posted a link on Craft Gossip Sewing:
    http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-ruffle-skirts-for-little-girls/2009/06/25/
    --Anne

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  15. Oh my gosh that is cute! Thanks for passing this idea along. It is adorable!

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  16. I just featured your skirts and post...http://mytrendytykes.blogspot.com/2009/06/mama-likes_30.html

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  17. SOOOOO FLIPPING CUUUUTE!!! TFS!!!

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  18. Oh, those are so very cute! I have boys and don't sew their clothes, but I might give this a crack for a niece or two. Thanks!

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  19. I finally got around to making one for my daughter...she LOVES it. Thanks for sharing!

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  20. So cute! I am in love with these skirts. The pink one looks like a tutu. My daughter would just love it. I'm going to have to make one now. Thank you!

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  21. Love these skirts! I've made two of them so far. The first one I forgot to scrunch the tulle, so it's not poofy, but still cute. The second one I scrunched, and it came out perfect! Thing Two wore it to her end of year school concert, and she got soooo many compliments on it!
    Thanks so much for posting this. I'm planning on making TONS more of them!

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