Sunday 9 March 2014

A skirt for spring

The sun is shining, flowers are emerging from winter and the children are enjoying   running around the garden. We are all remembering how much happier life feels in Spring. Inspired by the BBC's Sewing Bee I decided to make something spring like for my girl. She loves dressing up and was quite insistent on her fabric choice, pink and pretty were the order of the day.


Hunting through my spare fabric collection she decided upon a sweet little cotton paisley piece, I have no idea where it came from but it was a perfect choice.

I didn't follow a pattern and just made it up as I went along but it was such a simple elastic skirt it made up very quickly. Exactly the sort of sewing I love.


I sewed the rectangle of fabric (about 40 cm by 80 cm but that is very approximate) together to form a tube, sewing right sides together.

I then found a piece of 3 cm wide elastic which amazingly was exactly the right size to fit round her skinny waist with a piece left over to sew together.

To form a simple waist band I zig zag stitched around the top of the skirt to stop it unravelling and then folded it over using the elastic as a guide.  I stitched around the skirt leaving a small gap to insert     the elastic, threaded the elastic through using a hair grip to make the job easier and then finished stitching the gap.  No prizes for my seamstress abilities but I was more motivated to finish in the short time I had.

I sewed it to the right side above the hem and then turned  it under.

To appeal to small girl's love of all things pretty I added some red ric rac to the bottom. Initially I was planning to sew it on as decoration but inspiration hit me and I managed to sew it onto the right side of the skirt a few centimetres above the unfinished bottom edge. This meant that when I turned the hem up (which I did by hand) the ric rac also turned which hid the sewing line and looked very pretty at the bottom of the sweet skirt.

Inside the skirt pinned and ready to hem



The ric rac from the outside  (neat) and inside (seam showing)

The entire skirt took about half an hour to make including pressing the seams. If I had known it would have been that quick I would have made more of an effort and hemmed the waist band by hand to give a far neater edge inside.

My model is at the park enjoying the sun so I can only leave you with the picture. I know she will love it and I am so inspired to make more.


Just in  time   she returned happy and dirty  from her play and enjoyed modelling her new skirt.




I really like how it hangs on her, a perfect play skirt.


Have you been inspired by the Sewing Bee? 
What have you made recently?

6 comments:

  1. Its gorgeous Grace and your little girl looks as pretty as a picture in it!

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  2. It's so pretty. I love the Sewing Bee programme, but unfortunately, I'm a hopeless sewer.

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  3. So sweet, love the ric rac, and she looks very pleased with it!

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  4. Oh she's such a gem your little Ruby, and doesn't she look a little smasher in her lovely new skirt - and obviously delighted with it too! You did a great job Grace, and especially with the ric rac!
    Joy x

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  5. It is so pretty! I like the addition of the ric rac around the bottom, it makes a lovely finish! xx

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Thank you for your lovely comments, they really do brighten my day!