How to Make a Girls Twirly Skirt; a Free Tutorial

To make the skirt I started with a tutorial here… House on Hill Road. I can’t leave well enough alone and ended up making some changes. It needed some ric–rac.. I love ric rac.. If I were not 35 years old I would sew it to my own clothes!

Tonight after trying the first version of the skirt on my daughter, I decided that it was not fitting her right. She is very tiny and the skirt is very full. I decided that it needed a waistband to help the transition from the full skirt to the smaller waist. So I modified the one I started with to add a waistband. I’m sharing a tutorial for the skirt that I made with you today.

Before You Start a Few Tips:

First of all- it is IMPERATIVE that you PRESS and steam each piece AS YOU GO. Don’t wait until the end to do it all. This is the biggest thing you can do to make your garment look professional and not home-made.

Supplies to Make the Skirt:

You need:

(size of the pieces to be determined below)
2 pieces for the skirt top
2 pieces for the underskirt
2 pieces for the skirt band
1 piece for the waistband

To figure out the size of the skirt top, measure your models waist. Double that measurement. Write it down. This is the width of your fabric piece.

Measure down from the natural waist to determine how long you would like the skirt to be. I have found that 12″ is a pretty universal length for a 4 to 8 year old. This measurement is the height of your skirt piece.

For example: Sydney’s waist was 20″ so I cut 2 pieces of fabric 12″ x 40″. She is about a size 6x-7. (I picked the 12″ length after I measured how long I wanted it to be on her).

For the underskirt pieces, add 3″ to the length of the top skirt. Cut two more pieces. In my example, my 2 pieces are cut to 15″x40″

For the skirt band cut 2 pieces 3.5″x40″

For the waistband measure your model’s hips and add 2″. Syd’s were 24″ so I cut 1 piece of fabric 26″x4″. You can also just add 4-5″ to the waist measurement.

To attach the band to the skirt, refer to the tutorial for our Sydney’s Skirt found HERE.

After you have done that, sew the underskirt pieces together at the side seams. Press open.

To attach ric rac to the hem of the skirt, do the following:

The bottom of the skirt will need to be finished in some way before you sew on the ric rac, I just used the overcast stitch, you can also use a zig zag stitch or a serger.

Next pin the 2 skirt pieces together.
Run 2 rows of gathering stitches along the top of the 2 skirt pieces. Set aside. On waistband piece, sew side seams and fold under one side 1/4″ and press. Fold under again 1/2″ and press. Then sew along the bottom edge, leaving open 1/2″ to make an elastic casing.

Gather the skirt and attach to waistband. When I gather skirts, I think it is easier to gather in sections rather than the whole skirt, that way if the thread breaks you don’t lose the whole piece.

Sew skirt to the UNFOLDED edge of the waistband.

Measure a piece of 1/4″ elastic to size and thread into the waistband. Sew casing closed. Press.

Viola! Finished!
Now to make some changes to the t-shirt—- where is a bedazzler when you need one? (I don’t have one any suggestions to add some “bling” to the shirt).