Ruby Star Shining Skirt

I stumbled across this darling skirt on the Lucky Lucille blog a little over a year ago and I fell in love with it. The fabric is so charming and Rochelle did such a good job with creating a skirt that showed off the fabric just right- she definitely has an eye for vintage-y fabrics and clothing! Her style is so fun and fits her so well! 

I immediately started looking for some fabric just like it...  I did a little research and found a couple yards (it's called Ruby Star Rising Starlet in Aspic by Melody Miller) and put it away in my stash for about a year. I was kinda nervous to make a skirt for myself since all I had been making lately were quilts, bags, and whatnot... A skirt seemed tricky! Plus, I am always nervous to cut into a piece of fabric that I really love!

After looking at the fabric sit on my shelf for about a year, I took it down determined to make a skirt. I considered drafting my own pattern but decided to go with a store bought pattern... less headache! I used the New Look 6872 pattern and overall I feel like it turned out pretty good. It's similar to Rochelle's skirt (although, I definitely don't pull off the vintage look as well as she does!) but I really like the sash/belt option of the pattern I followed.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! I've been all over the place since we left Ohio... Kansas to Utah and out to California back to Utah then to Texas and finally back to Utah for a few more weeks until we trek across the US again to the East coast and settle into our home there. It's been a fun, busy summer so far... but I'm looking forward to unpacking our things and start sewing again! I've been working on my hexie quilt all summer, since it's an easy take along project for road trips and is all hand pieced- but I am getting the itch to put the pedal to the metal on my sewing machine again!

xoxo, Ashley

Anchor Chardon Skirt

I have been on the hunt for the perfect pleated skirt for about 2 years now.  I came across this fabulous pattern by a darling French pattern designer named Eleonore. She runs a shop called Deer and Doe and I love her designs. This skirt is called the Chardon Skirt and it is such a great pattern! I ordered it straight from France and the pattern arrived in less than a week... I was so impressed with the turn around! 

I picked out some fabric and got to cutting out my pattern. (I used Anchor Chambray for the main part of the skirt, Clown Stripe in Limeade for the accent. I am not certain the info on the bias tape, but I picked it up from Sew to Speak and it matched perfectly with the stripe.)

*Side note: Have you ever measured yourself for a pattern and thought "I'm gonna go with the smaller size because I know I am going to drop some of the extra pounds I put on over the winter."

- Me too! I'm so glad I am not the only one! ;)

 So I went for the smaller size and got to sewing. The pattern was so easy to follow and very straight forward (it came with instructions in English and French- in case you were wondering).

Well as I was sewing, I was thinking to myself... "Oh man...Not sure if this is gonna fit!" 

Sure enough- when I finished, I tried the skirt and I could zip it up but it definitely looked like it was a size too small. Bummer! I knew that with a summer of being active outside it would probably fit perfect in a month or two, but I had another idea....

My younger sister Heidi is the "pre- having two kids" version of me. I knew the skirt would fit her great. So I packed up this happy little skirt and shipped it to her! 

Doesn't it she look darling?

She is a missionary for our Church, serving in Tampa, Florida so she wears skirts everyday and was so happy to have a fun new skirt to wear! I just love her and am so proud of all of the good she is doing in Tampa. And I am so excited because she will be returning home in July and I will get to see her again! (Girl missionaries serve for 18 months away from family and loved ones. They get to call home on Christmas and Mother's Day and email once a week- but she is one of my very best friends so I feel like I haven't seen her in FOR-EVER!)

Ok... back to the skirt... a couple of my favorite things about the pattern is that there are pockets in the skirt (something I had never done before, but  was surprisingly easy), the pleats, the ties on the back of the skirt (optional), and the bottom of the skirt is hemmed with bias tape for a nice clean finish. I was very happy with the way it turned out!

I definitely recommend this pattern to anyone! Beginner or experienced seamstress! 

Happy Sewing!

xoxo, Ashley

The Bustle Bottom Skirt + Tutorial

For Easter this year, I made my girls outfits to wear to church... For my oldest daughter, I made a this dress, and for my youngest, I made this little bustle bottomed skirt...

I have wanted to try something with a bustled look for a while, so Saturday night at about midnight (leave it to me to wait until the last minute) I came up with this skirt...

It was super simple... 

You will need to measure your little gal before buying your fabric. Measure the waist and times that by 2- that will be your width of fabric needed. Then measure from waist to the top of the knee (or wherever you want the length to fall.) You will need to add a few inches to allow for the hem and the waistband casing- and then after calculating that in- add a few inches to create the bustle part. (I hope this makes sense. For mine, I added a half inch for the hem, and inch and a half for the casing (I used 3/4 inch elastic... I like to sew at the top of the casing as well so I needed a little extra for that) and then I added 2 inches for the bustle effect)

Supplies:

-Fabric (amount determined by your measurements)

-elastic for waistband (I used 3/4 inch)

-either elastic thread or you can use 1/4 inch elastic like I did (this is for the bustled part... I only used 12 inches so you don't need much)

Step 1: Zig zag or serge the edges of your fabric (you will only need to do the sides of the fabric since the top and bottom will be finished off with casing and hem)

Step 2: Put your fabric right sides together and sew up the side and then press the seams open.

Step 3: Iron your hem (roll over 1/4 inch and press, then roll over again 1/4 inch and press) 

and casing for waistband (roll over 1/4 inch and press and then whatever width your waist band elastic is be sure to allow a little extra for your to sew and still fit the elastic into the casing).

Step 4: Ok... like I said, I made this at midnight the night before Easter so I had to use what I had on hand so I made do with 1/4 inch elastic... If you are using elastic thread, skip the next few steps and improvise with your elastic thread...

Cut your elastic strips for the bustled part of the skirt. Since my skirt was 30 inches wide, I cut 6 2-inch strips of elastic so I could space them every 5 inches apart. So when cutting yours, decide how many bustles you want, how much you want them to bustle up, etc and then cut your strips the way you want them.

 Step 5: Space and pin your elastic strips evenly around your skirt. (tuck them into the bottom of the skirt and pin) Like I said, mine were spaced every 5 inches.

Step 6: Sew your hem to secure the elastic pieces. This is how it should look when you are done.

 Step 7:Put your presser foot and needle down to hold your first elastic piece in place. Pull the elastic back towards you as far as it will go and mark that place on the fabric with a pin. Then measure and place a pin for each elastic. (mine stretched 3 1/2 inches) Now when you start to sew the elastic while it is stretched, you can see that visual of where it needs to stretch to and it will be even with each of the 6 elastics once they are all sewn. (Your elastic may be bigger or smaller so it may stretch more or less than mine so take your own measurement to see how high to place the pin.)

 Step 8: Sew each of the elastics in place.

Step 9: Sew your casing. Be sure to leave an opening big enough to fit your elastic in. Thread elastic all the way through the casing. (I hook a safety pin to one end to feed it through easier)

Step 10: Put your elastic ends together, one on top of the other, and zig zag back and forth to stitch it closed. Make sure it is not twisted in the casing before sewing it.

Step 11: Once your elastic is sewn closed, pull it all the way into the casing and then stitch the opening of the casing closed.

That's it! :)

Little Miss Priss Skirt + Tutorial

 I would definitely classify my oldest daughter as a "girly girl"... she loves all things girly, ruffly, princessy, etc. And I love it! She is always totally in love with anything girly I make for her. She thinks all of things I make are "beautiful" and she tells me all the time!  -Definitely a confidence booster since she currently tells everything "how it is" and has not been afraid to tell me more than once that she didn't like the shirt I was wearing {in a very nice way of course}. ha ha

Since it has been a while since I made her a skirt, I decided it was high time I get to ruffling and skirt making. In the past I have made the rick rack ruffle skirt, the {not so mini} mini skirt, the Dora the Explorer skirt, and the pom-pom skirt for her- so this time I wanted to mix things up a little and try something new.

I knew that I wanted to do ruffles again since she loves them so much, but I wanted to do them a little different. Here is what I came up with.

The ruffles are just barely there, but add a little fullness to the skirt which is fun:) 

{more "twirl factor"= happy girl}

So- if your little gal needs a Little Miss Priss Skirt- here is how I made mine...

My daughter wears a 2-3t right now so if you were making this for a smaller or bigger sized girl then you may need to adjust the fabric measurements/amounts.

Supplies:

--- 3-4 different fabrics, 1/8 yard each. 

{I had originally planned to make this a 4 tiered skirt, but once I had the 3rd tier on and held it up to her I realized than another tier would have been too long so I stuck to 3.}

---Elastic for the waistband

-trim for the bottom of the skirt 

{the kind I used is rick rack with crocheted trim on it- I found it at  a darling little fabric shop in my town.}

---thread

Cutting your fabric:

Each layer of this skirt is progressively bigger than the layer above it. So you will need to decide which fabric order you want your skirt layers to be before cutting...

Here is a picture of the cutting process to help you visualize a little bit.

So as I mentioned  earlier, when making this skirt I had planned to have 4 tiers, but last minute changed to 3- well I changed to 3 after cutting my fabric- So this is how I cut mine. For the bottom tier {not pictured} I left it the full length {around 42-44 inches}, for the second to bottom tier {the bottom tier on my finished skirt} I cut off 5 inches of the length, for the red tier I cut off 10 inches, and for the top tier I cut off 15 inches. So if you are doing 4 tiers on your skirt- cut your fabric like that- if you are doing 3 like mine ended up being, I would not cut any off the bottom tier and then adjust your lengths for cutting the other two layers off depending on how full you want your skirt. The key to the skirt looking even is just making sure whatever ratio you use for cutting is the same with each graduating layer so that the layers are evenly ruffled. Make sense??

{Tip: I think 1/8 of a yard is the perfect size/thickness for a tier in the skirt- no matter the age, but if you are making a skirt for a bigger child, you may need more width than just 1/8 of a yard so you could buy 1/4 of a yard and then cut it in half so you had two 1/8ths and then you could sew them together so that your fabric was 1/8th of a yard thick but twice as long as just 1/8th of a yard- does that make sense at all?? ha ha}

Step 1: Once your fabric is cut, zig-zag or serge all of the edges for each piece {technically you don't need to serge or zig-zag the bottom edge of the bottom tier since you will be hemming it and you don't need to do it to the top edge of the top tier either since you are going to be creating a casing for your elastic, but if this confuses you- just do it around all edges of each piece- that is not going to hurt anything}

Step 2: Take each layer except the top layer and sew across the top of each layer- Make sure to set your stitch length to the longest your machine will do and do not go back and froth at the beginning or end because you are going to be gathering your fabric. Once you have a seam sewn across the top of each layer, take the second tier of the skirt and gather the fabric so that it is the same length of the bottom of the tier above it. (it is not going to take a lot of gathering since it is only 5 inches bigger than the tier above it) Put the gathered piece on top of the top tier right sides together and pin the top of the gathered layer to the bottom of the tier above it and then sew in place. (make sure that you adjust your stitch length back to normal for the remainder of your sewing project)

 When you are all done, it should look like this. You are going repeat step 2 with each tier until each tier of the skirt is sewn on.

Step 3: Press your seams so that they are all facing towards the top of the skirt. The top stitch on the right side of the fabric above each seam. (so you will be top sewing on the bottom of each tier above the gathered part of the tier below it)

 It will look like this when you are done top stitching.

Step 4: Fold your skirt in half, matching up the side seams, pin in place and sew along the side to create your skirt.

Step 5: Create a casing for your elastic. To do this, fold and press the top of your skirt over 1/4 inch all the way around the skirt, then measure the width of your elastic and fold and press over again. I used 1 inch elastic so when I folded over a second time, I folded over 1 1/4 inch so that I would have enough room for my seam and to fit my elastic in. Sew all the way around the skirt but leave an opening big enough to feed your elastic into. Measure and cut your elastic and then hook a safety pin to one end of your elastic and thread it all the way through the casing till it comes out the other side. Sew both ends of your elastic together (make sure that it has not twisted around at all while threading through before sewing) and then sew finish sewing the casing closed.

Step 6: Hem your skirt. I just folded and pressed 1/4 inch and then over again 1/4 inch and sewed for my skirt.

 Step 7: Add your trim. If you are adding trim like pom-poms, rick rack, etc- sew your trim to the bottom of the skirt.

 I used a rick rack trim that had crocheted lace on the top and bottom of the rick rack. To sew this kind of trim on, I just pinned in place and sewed on top of the rick rack part. (since the delicate lace is not attached to the skirt, I am sure I will have to press this trim after each washing)

That's it... now you have a new skirt for your Little Miss Priss!

{Not So Mini} Mini Skirt + Tutorial

 When I found this corduroy fabric at Joann's, I immediately pictured a little mini skit! I love the pattern and the colors! And of course I couldn't resist adding some pom-poms!

Ok... so here is how you make it.

You will need:

fabric

elastic for back waistband

pom-poms

To create your ratio, measure waist.

Front piece of skirt= 1/2 width of waist measurement by length desired (don't forget to include seam allowances)

Back Piece of skirt= 3/4 waist measurement by length desired (don't forget to include seam allowances)

Just so you can visualize it more, I will show my daughters ratios...

Waist=19 inches

Front piece= 10.5 inches x length (I added one inch to the width for seam allowances- that is why it is 10.5 instead of 9.5)

Back Piece= 15.25 inches x length (added one inch for seam allowances)

 Step 1: Take the back piece of fabric and create a casing for the elastic. ( I was using 1 inch elastic so I folded over 1/4 inch and pressed and then folded over again 1 1/4 inch and pressed.)

 Step 2: Sew along the top and bottom of the casing.

 Step 3: Cut your elastic- divide waist measurement in half and then subtract 1-2 inches and that will be the length for your elastic. 

Step 4: Thread your elastic through that casing.

 Step 5: Once you get it all the way through, pin it on each side so you can sew it to the edge of the fabric.

Step 6: After your elastic is sewn into the waist, line up the front and back pieces of the skirt right sides together and sew down the sides of the skirt. Then hem the skirt to desired length.

Step 7: Sew on the pom poms.

That's it! Easy peasy!

The Skirt of Armor

Last week as I was browsing the isles of Joann's I came upon a fabric that was so different and so cool. The first thing I thought when I saw it was- Armor. I instantly knew that I wanted to make a skirt with it. So here is what I came up with. (If you read or look at my blog you will find that I come up with random names to call my project and tutorials... I know it's cheesy, but I just can't help myself. So I named this skirt my Skirt of Armor. )

There are so many fun fabrics these days at the stores that are pre-ruffled, or just funky like this one that normally freak me out or seem too hard to work with and I finally just decided to go for it and went out on a limb and got this fabric on a good sale. 

This skirt would work with any fabric you wanted. Ruffled, bedazzled, or just plain cotton. It is the easiest skirt I have ever made. If you are an experience seamstress, you will be able to whip this out in less than an hour, and if you have never sewn anything in your life- this is the perfect first project!! Anyone can make this! :)

To start, take your measurements and figure out exactly how much fabric and elastic you will need.

(the fabric needs to be wide enough to go around the biggest part of your hips plus a few inches for wiggle room.)

For my skirt, since my fabric was so wide, I only needed a yard and I was able to cut in half width wise and use the halves for front and back. The elastic I used was black knit elastic that was 2 inches wide that I bought by the yard at Joann's.

Step 1: Measure around the biggest part of your hips and add 3-6 inches depending on how roomy you want your skirt. (you could add even more if you want it really full) and then measure where you want the hem to fall on your leg. With my fabric I didn't need to hem the bottom so I didn't have to figure in seam allowances, but if you are going to have to hem your fabric, calculate that into your length.

Since I used 2 pieces of fabric (one piece for the front and one piece for the back) I had to divide the total width measurement in half and cut a front and back. If you have enough fabric that you can just cut one big piece, that is one less seam you will have to sew.

Step 2: Put your fabric right sides together and sew each side.

 Step 3: Zig zag, serge, or clean finish the edges to prevent fraying.

 Step 4: Measure and cut your elastic for your waistband. Put the elastic right sides together and sew. Open and press the seam, and sew each edge down flat.

 Step 5: Once your elastic waistband is sewn- measure and pin it evenly around the top of the skirt. (I always start by finding the very center of the back of the skirt and lining it up and pinning with the seam of the sewn elastic band and then doing the same for the front middle and sides of the skirt. So it is pinned in 4 places. Then I find the centers between each pin and the fabric in between and pinning it as well. So all in all I have the fabric pinned 8 times equal distances apart around the elastic and skirt. This helps so that you get your gathers sewn evenly.) To sew you put the presser foot down on one pin and then hold onto the next pin and stretch as you sew and just go from one pin to the next pin until you have sewn all the way around. (This picture is what it looks like when the elastic is being stretched. Zig zagged around the top of the skirt as well before sewing it to the waist band)

 Step 8: Hem your skirt. In my case since I wanted to have the shape of the fabric be the bottom of my skirt, I just pulled up the layers of the "armor" so that only the bottom layer was exposed and zig zagged all the way around the very bottom layer to ensure that my skirt didn't fray on the bottom or start falling apart while I was wearing it!  

And that's it! Super easy!!! 

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