DIY Tiered Skirt

For everyone living in Turkey ~Click HERE for details on the fun Giveaway.

Well I promised to share with you how I made this skirt for my newly 5 year old. 

Here's the skirt in action.

There are MANY SO MANY tutorials out there on how to make a homemade skirt.  I am not going to attempt to re-invent the wheel, however there are a few things that I wish I would have known earlier and had pics for ~ like how to gather a skirt for a ruffle, so I will share those things with you plus a wonderful resource for making tiered skirts.

Well here is where I picked out my fabric and then got the measurments for what each tier needed to be.  Okay STOP there, how did I figure out the measuremnts?

This great 'skirt measurent calculation tool' does ALL the work for you.
 (i love it i love it) All you need to do is measure the child's waist and then know the length of the skirt you want.  I just measured another skirt my daughter had that I liked the length for.
Then the 'calculation tool' gives you measurements for each tier up to 6 tiers.

Here is my fabric cut from top to bottom tier. 
Each piece is folded in half~ they fold out the long way.

If you are interested in making a tiered skirt

please follow THIS link.

It is one of the best I have found for newbies like me.
 The pictures are clear and there are several for each step.

The following pictures and instructions are the ones I would have liked for reference and clarification.  Many times tutorials 'assume' you know something that you may or may not.

I hope these are helpful.

 How to gather a skirt for a ruffle

*I draw a line with one of my girls washable markers all the way across the length of the fabric.

*Then I take a needle with an extended amount of thread that will go the length and more of the fabric piece.

*I sew like you see in the picture below. It is a quick stitch so that I can pull on the thread and it will gather easily and then pull out after done sewing. The thread is not doubled.

*This is the ruffle after sewing my way thru the length of the piece of fabric, pulling slightly and arranging it.

*I then pin this piece to the next tier and sew on. After it has been sewn on I pull out the yellow thread I used to make the ruffle.  Again this LINK shows all the directions for pinning and sewing in detail. (I did sew the rest of the skirt with my sewing machine just the ruffle part I did by hand.)

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Ironing for the elastic waist band

*Ironing is necessary in sewing and makes everything so much simplier.

*For the first tier fold over a small bit and iron, then fold over again about 1/2 in. to 1 in. depending on the width of your elastic and iron down the fold. This picture is the 2nd fold.

*This is where you will sew to make an opening for the elastic you eventually pull through.

This LINK that I shared above shows you how to do that.

Oh and yes it was made with lots of love...so my very own tag of love to go with it.:)

Now every time the 'tag' bothers her she can think of me. :) lol Watch me have to cut it out eventually.

Enjoy and please let me know if this has been helpful to you. ~ Becky

~Don't forget if you live in Turkey to leave a comment or e-mail me for the
fabric GIVEAWAY.  Click here for details. Now you have the perfect thing to make with the cute fabric. :)