Ruffle Trim Girl Skirts

 

I love all things ruffle.  Seriously....LOVE.  Especially when those ruffles are on little girls.  There is nothing better in the world. 

Last weekend I caught up on all my etsy orders (which is a first in such a long time it was a weird feeling)  and had promised my 2 older girls that I would make them a skirt.  I didn't know exactly what I would make them, but my drawer of remnant ruffle fabric pieces was over flowing and driving me NUTS!

is it just me or am I the only person that can't get a decent picture of ALL of my children at once.  Oh well.  I can't wait til she is 30 and I can say "check out that temper...all over a cabbage patch doll"

So this was the solution to my problem. I was able to use up some of my remnants and make the girls a cute new skirt.   I also had some ruffle satin trim hanging around in my sewing room from Wholeport.  

SUPPLIES:
~Ruffle fabric pieces cut so that there is only 1 or 2 ruffles on each piece (1 piece would go around the entire skirt once)
 ~Satin Ruffle Trim or lace trim ( 1 yard went around the skirt once)
~cotton fabric for the base (I used a skirt that my girls already had to guesstimate what size it needed to be.  For reference my 7 year olds skirt measured a total of 27 inches around the waist and 25 inches long)
~elastic waist band.  I used 3 inch wide on the larger skirt and 1.5 inch wide for the medium skirt
~ric-rac if desired. 

1.  I used a solid white cotton fabric for the base of my skirts.  Cut your skirt pieces the size desired.  I would make it at least 3 inches wider than your child's measurements and then stretch your elastic to fit the width. That way you know that the skirt will fit your child :)

2. Sew your skirt together down the 2 sides.  I used my serger.  Then I serged/finished the top and the bottom as well .

3.Sew your elastic waistband onto the skirt piece.  I like to do it now instead of after sewing the ruffles on so that you can make sure you get the ruffles as close to the elastic as possible so you don't see the base fabric

4. Mark your rows for going around the skirt.  Normally I wouldn't take the time, but it kept my lines straight and gave me a guide for sewing the ruffles down.  On the larger skirt I marked every 1 inch, on the other 2 I marked every 1.5 inches.  I don't think it matters which one you do.  I didn't end up sewing exactly on the line.  It just depended on how wide the ruffle or trim was that I was using on that row.  But it was really nice to have the markings as a guide to help me keep the rows straight

5.  Now start at the top of your skirt and pick the first fabric you are going to be sewing on.  I sewed as close, or barely on top of the elastic, as I could.  That way the base fabric wasn't visible after sewing.
6. The satin trim is easy to sew on.  Just top stitch it onto your base fabric, keeping it straight with your guide marks.  The ruffle fabric is a little more difficult.  A couple suggestions I have that may help you:
   a. if you are doing 2 ruffle pieces then I would open the ruffle fabric up like in the picture below with the right side facing the base fabric and sew it onto your base fabric.  Then when you are done sewing the fabric will fold over and appear a lot fuller.
  b. I would stuff as much ruffle fabric in while sewing as possible to make it fuller.  The first couple rows I did were not full enough so I ended up going back and adding more fabric there.
c. You could pre-ruffle your ruffle fabric before sewing if you find that easier to keep your ruffling even.  I didn't, I just stuffed and sewed. 

7.  Make sure if you aren't going to be sewing a ruffle onto the very bottom of your base fabric where you serged it to fold it over and finish it nicely.
8.  If you would like to add the ric-rac trim at the top now is the time.  I just top stitched the ric-rac on right at the top edge of the first ruffle.

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my tutorial.  If you find it helpful you might consider following along for more great tutorials and information.