Portrait Pieces...2 down 1 to go!

I finished Hailey's skirt! yippee! I had all of these ideas swimming in my head. I kind of wanted to make a bubble skirt but decided that would take too much fabric. Then I thought maybe some pleats. But decided against it. Or maybe a tiered skirt. Nope still too much fabric. I finally ended with thinking I'd just make a simple tshirt waistband with the fabric gathered at the top. Simple, simple, quick and easy!

Then as I was cutting fabric (eek! I cut into it again! my hand only shook a little bit this time!) I decided I wanted to do a bit of a paper bag type skirt. Not sure what a paper bag skirt is? Well this is the one that kept popping into my mind from Made by Lex. Only I don't have any coordinating fabric. To make the drawstring. Yeah apparently Amy Butler trademarked her colors?! Joann and Hancock didn't have anything that was even close to the colors of this fabric...so I went with a color that will be used throughout the other outfits. Grey. The hubby has a grey cardigan and I have this grey dress coming from Shabby Apple!

Wanna make your little angel one of these paper bag-ish skirts? Here is what you'll need!

Materials:
1 old tshirt in a coordinating color
about 13" fabric (or however long you want the skirt)
coordinating thread

No really that's it! I'm telling you easy peasy, right?!

I dug a grey tshirt out of the recyclable clothing box and cut off the bottom hem at 3 inches. Why 3 inches? I dunno why it looked good to me for a waistband size. Then I measured my little pumpkin and her waist was 20 inches. So I cut one of the side seams off of it and sewed at the 9 inch line. Making the waistband about 18 inches. It will stretch to 20 inches and you want it to stay up!

Then I started with the actual skirt part. Normally for a skirt I just hem the bottom. This time we want to hem both the bottom and the top. For the top I did a 1/2 hem. Start by folding over and ironing a 1/4 inch then fold it over again and iron it at 1/2 inch! Finally stitch it down.

Do the same for the bottom only make the hem a bit wider. I like a 1- 1 1/2 inch hem on the bottom. I eyeballed it and this time it came out to 1 1/4 inches. Then stitch that down. You can double stitch if you like. I did for both the top and bottom.

After you have both top and bottom hemmed you can sew the two selvages together to make a loop. You could do this first I just think it is easier, faster, and more efficient to do the hem first in the flat rather than the round. I always do it this way.

After you have your loop, sew your longest stitch length and gather the top. I ran my stitch about a 1/2 inch below my lower top hem line. Overlap it a bit at the beginning and end to make sure the very back isn't flat. See how the gathering stitch overlaps a bit right after the seem? You want that! Then gather it to fit the waistband.

I pressed a fold into my waistband at the halfway mark. It is hard to see but it is there promise! Then make sure to match that fold up with the back seam of the skirt. Turn the skirt inside out and the waistband inside out. You want this to wrong side of the skirt to right side of the waistband. Opposite of what we usually do right side to right side.

Sew your skirt bottom to your waistband using a fairly long zig zag stitch. Right over your gathering stitch (so that it is in the middle of your zig zag). I made mine 3.5. After you have it sewn down and are sure your zig zag caught the waistband all the way around you can rip out your gathering stitch. Just pull the thread you were pulling to gather it until it slides out! Then your skirt will be nice and flexible keeping the elasticity of the tshirt waistband. And making it easy to pull on and off for those quick potty trips!

I always double stitch my hems and press with starch to make them look crisp, clean, and professional! I don't worry about switching to a double needle they are sew quick to sew I just do it twice.

See how you get that paper bag type look at the top? Like you packed your lunch and crumpled the top of the paper bag? I like it! Much better than a plain gathered skirt with the edges tucked under and just as simple! Next time I will do the drawstring! When I'm not so worried about having enough fabric for everyone!

I can't decide if I like the narrower waistband or the wider waistband pictured below...

Hailey liked the wider one because it "covered her belly button".  

I think for the pictures I will tuck the shirt in so you can see the fun top of the skirt. I am going to add some horizontal ruffles to this little plain white shirt to coordinate with the rest of the outfits. Belle will have her off white pettiskirt on under her dress. So we'll use the leftover chiffon for Hailey's shirt.

Up next a sweet little dress for Ms. Belle and IF there is enough fabric a coordinating belt for my dress as well as some bows for the dogs!

Love and Hugs,