DIY Ruffle Skirt

I am not an expert at sewing, I just know the basics. So I know that if I can do this, you can too! Last summer, I was astounded with the price of cute little girl skirts. Ridiculous! I figured it can't be that hard to make an elastic ruffle skirt, so I went ahead and tried. I was so happy with the result and received so many compliments that I wanted to do it again this summer. I'm hoping to do at least one more set (I have two toddler girls) before baby boy arrives, but who knows. I'm going to start by assuming you know the basics of sewing, such as how to cut fabric, pin a seam, finish a stitch by reversing, etc. Also a few notes on my example:
1. I do not have a normal sewing machine. I have a mini machine that weighs about a pound, does only a simple basic stitch, and doesn't even reverse.
2. Do not ask your husband what color thread you should use for a certain fabric print. I had pink and white, my husband said white, so that's what I went with. As you will clearly see, I should have gone pink, as white emphasizes mistakes and makes it very obvious that I am working with an inexpensive machine. (Use a color that matches your fabric.)
3. I made two skirts for my girls as well as two skirts for their dolls. The pictures are of the doll skirt because I thought seeing the entire project would help explain the instructions.
4. You can change the measurements to fit your needs. I have tall girls, and the picture above is my three year old's skirt. You can make it as short or as long as you want. And all it takes to add more "ruffle-age" is to add length to the rectangles.
5. I apologize in advance for my super long instructions. I hate vague DIY instructions, so I did my best to explain everything thoroughly.

Materials: 1/2" elastic, fabric (for 2 girl and 2 doll skirts, I only needed 1.5 yards), thread - I'm going to assume you have pins, a needle, fabric pen, measuring tape, sewing gauge

** I did 1/2" seams and used pinking shears on every seam. If you have a normal sewing machine, I recommend using the zig-zag stitch or a different stitch stronger than your basic stitch.

Ok, here we go:
1. Cut a bunch of rectangles. Here are the measurements I used: (click to enlarge any of these images)

2. With the right sides of the fabric together, sew the main skirt pieces together on the sides, forming a tube. Here, I've already sewn them together and used the pinking shears on the seams. 

3. Iron open seams. (From now on, I'll assume you do this with all your seams.) This ensures that your fabric will lay correctly.

4. Create tube for elastic at the top of the skirt. Do this by ironing down 1/4" all the way around and then ironing again at 3/4". Pin where the 1/4" is doubled, and this is where you'll stitch. Leave a 2-3" hole for inserting the elastic. This picture is of the ironing and pinning. 

 First picture is of the stitching that is most of the way around the skirt. Second picture is showing the hole which we'll use later. (Saving the elastic for last will make adding the ruffles much easier.) Click to enlarge photos if needed.

5. Taking two of the ruffle pieces right sides together, form a tube just as you did with the main part of the skirt. Repeat this step with the third and fourth ruffle pieces, as there are two layers of ruffles. 

6. Hem both ruffle 'tubes'. There are lots of ways to do hems. Some machines have blind hem stitches - obviously mine doesn't. You can do a decorative stitch using your machine (I would do this if I could). You can do a slip stitch by hand (who has the time for that?) or just do what I did: use your basic stitch, but realize it's going to be visible on the outside of the skirt. I wanted to save on fabric as much as I could, so I ironed the bottom down 1/4", then again 1/4", pinning after the second go around, and then sewing that hem.

First picture is of the ironing and pinning, second is what it should look like when you're done - if you've done your hem the way I did. Again, make sure you have the best color thread possible!

7. Gather the ruffle pieces. The loose stitches from gathering is how you're going to create the ruffles. This may sound daunting, but it's not. To gather fabric, you create two very loose stitches side by side. You can do this on your machine if you have the option of adjusting stitches, but even if I could, I wouldn't. I have always hated gathering by machine. I much prefer to do this by hand using a needle and thread. If you're doing it by hand, make sure you have enough thread for the entire length of the fabric, knot one end, and get started. This is what the loose stitches will look like if you do it by hand. Obviously, a machine's loose stitches will look differently.

8. Mark where you'll be attaching the top ruffle. (If you're changing the measurements of the skirt, you're going to need to recalculate where you mark your fabric and attach the ruffle.) Using a fabric pen, mark the RIGHT side (the outside, what everyone will see once the skirt is finished) of the main skirt 2.5" from the bottom, all the way around the skirt. [For the doll skirt, I marked 1.5" from the bottom.] You'll see by enlarging the photo how I mark the fabric - purple dots using the fabric pen and sewing gauge.

9. Pin the ruffle in place. I start by pinning the side seams of the ruffle to the side seams of the skirt, which ensures that you have the same amount of ruffle in the back as the front. Then go crazy with your pins as you pull the threads from gathering. The reason I like doing the gathering by hand is because I can evenly distribute my ruffles. After you've pinned the ruffles in place:

10. Remove the thread from gathering and then mark where your seam should be. (because the bottom of the skirt will be covering your needle plate) Once again, I used 1/2" seam for everything.

 11. Stitch all the way around the skirt, using the marks as your guide. This will attach your top ruffle. Since you're making ruffles, the fabric will not lay flat and will look very messy - it's supposed to. Sewing ruffles is not for the perfectionist! This is what it will look like after sewing and removing the pins. I added the second picture just to show you that no matter how messy the inside looks, the final product of ruffles is pretty cool!

12. Using the same method as step 9, right sides together, pin the bottom ruffle in place along the bottom of the skirt. (Nice thing about the bottom ruffle is that you don't have to mark where the ruffle goes or where your stitch is going to be.)

 13. After pinning the bottom ruffle in place, remove the thread from gathering, and attach the bottom ruffle, sewing all the way around the skirt. Once I did this, I used pinking shears on both ruffle seams and ironed down the ruffles.

You're almost done! All that's left is to add the elastic to the top of the skirt!

14. Cut your 1/2" elastic to your desired length. For my 3T skirt, I used 18"; for the doll skirt, I used 13". Insert your elastic into the tube at the top of the skirt - my mom always used a giant safety pin, so that's what I've always done. Once you get close to the end of the elastic, use another safety pin to keep the elastic from going all the way inside.

 15. Once all the way through, stitch the ends of elastic together. (I used a fabric pen to mark 1/4" from the end on both ends and that's where I pinned and stitched.) Make sure you make this a very strong stitch as it's going to be getting pulled on quite a bit. Only having a basic stitch, I just went back and forth over it several times.

16. Pull the now stitched elastic into the tube and slip stitch it closed. This is a horrible slip stitch, but as I mentioned, these pictures are of one of the doll skirts, and by the time I was on my second doll skirt, I really didn't care about what the inside of the skirt looked like! I promise I did a much better job with my 3T skirts!

You're done!! Just even out the elastic, turn it right side out, and you're all set! Since these images are of the doll skirt, here is a picture of one of the girls' dolls (a special gift for them when their baby brother is born) wearing her skirt. I found a matching onsie and attached some flower buttons to make it a little cuter. This is a reborn doll, and the amazing artist who did these for us is found here on facebook. The girls have already worn their skirts and tops (with matching hairbows I made) and looked adorable! I just can't wait to give them their dolls!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I'll do my best to explain!

Christmas Magnets

Coming up with Christmas crafts for girls ages two and three is not easy, but it can be done. I picked up an ornament set at a craft store (super cheap) and just used magnetic strips I already had. Lots of fun was had and a big mess made! (Also, a little brother enjoyed a snack of marker flavored wood resulting in a blue face for a couple of days!) Ok, so I had a lot of fun, too!

Free Christmas Printable

Daily migraines on top of exhaustion have been a constant for a few weeks now, and I apologize for the lack of posts. I'm praying the headaches end soon because they are certainly no fun with three children who like to run around the house screaming all day! Anyway, just wanted to share with you a free printable for Christmas. Just follow this link to download and print this great 8x10! I printed mine and already have it framed!

Again, this is not my creation, I just found it at http://adventuresofabettycrockerwannabe.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-scripture-word-tree-printable.html

Charlie Brown's Gingerbread House

We all know about Charlie's Brown's Christmas tree, and I'm pretty sure if he made a gingerbread house, it would look very much like ours. I realized we had graham crackers, icing left over from a birthday, and marshmallows from Lauren's food therapy, so we went to town! The experience was had, a mess was made, and pictures were taken. (The colored rows are completely Megan's doing. I wonder how early you can diagnose OCD . . . )

NOEL

As promised, here is my complete "NOEL" Christmas display, complete with "snowy" pinecone trees for my BirchHeart snowmen. (Pinecones were a few from a huge bag that only cost $2 after store sale plus coupons and I already had the paint.) When I asked my husband what he thought - always a mistake - he said he didn't like it. When I finally got a reason out of him, his response was that it looks to "Hobby Lobby-ish". Well, I guess I'll take that as a compliment!

Magnetic Nativity

Thanks to good old Pinterest, I have a list of things I want to do with the kids this Christmas. When I saw these free printables, I got very excited and immediately decided I wanted to print them on magnetic sheets and pop them on the refrigerator at Christmas. This link will take you the blog post where I found them. (This lady is a graphic design genius/stay-at-home mom with very different religious opinions than me.) If you scroll down to the very bottom of her post, she provides links to download the PDF's which you can then print and use to your heart's desire. You'll notice the downloads look different than the images she shows in the post and don't contain all the images. I was very confused at first, but the images she shows are much smaller than the images you get in the PDF downloads. If you're stuck on using the extra images, just right click on the image and save it to your computer. That works too! I decided to go with the downloads since they're a better size for toddlers. There are so many things you can do with these: you could make magnets, mod podge them onto wooden blocks, print on cardstock and glue to popsicle sticks, make finger puppets, the ideas are endless! I already ordered some magnetic sheets from Amazon, printed and cut everything! Of course, I had to see how it looked on the frig and I am so very excited to share with my children the most important true story in the world.

Getting Crafty

I love Christmas. Growing up, it was a big deal. Big. The day after Thanksgiving, the fall decorations came down, and the tree went up. Gingerbread on the fireplace, snowmen on the mantle, garlands dripping from every banister, and the Precious Moments nativity on the piano with the wise men thoughtfully placed on the window sill nearby. All three of my sisters and I have a deep, deep love for Christmas thanks to our mom. We love it just as much as we did when we were little. All that to say, I am already desperately aching to pull out the decorations! I have to force myself to wait, knowing that two girls' birthday parties have to happen first, and I want them to have their own little holiday before we all celebrate Jesus'

birthday as a family. So since I couldn't decorate my house, I thought I'd make something new to put out when I can decorate. (Once again, thank you Pinterest!) I saw this first picture and fell in love with it. The website is in Finnish (I believe) so it really wasn't any help. I also had to do an inexpensive version, preferably with a little more color since the walls here are kind of boring anyway. I collect the Birch Heart Snowmen figurines, which I think will look perfect in front of this "Noel". I wanted to get a picture of the completed display, but lacked the energy to pull out a million boxes to find which figurines I wanted to use. So you'll have to use your imagination to picture my final display, but I promise I'll take pictures this December! One of the figurines I may use on the left, and here's my version of "Noel":

And since I was in such a craft mood, and had left over supplies, I made one for "Fall", too:

(I'll let you in on a secret: the first and last letters are made from diaper boxes. :) First are wrapped in brown paper wrapping paper and the "L"s are wrapped in twine.) Once again, use coupons and shop sales! Projects don't always have to cost tons of moolah!

Front Door Makeover

We moved into our wonderful little house almost four years ago. This awful wreath was on the door when we moved in and it was still hanging there until last week. I always think of wreaths as being seasonal decoration and because of lack of both money and storage space, I didn't touch it. I mean, let's face it. I have much, much more important things to think about and spend money on. But then I saw a picture. A beautiful, simple picture on Pinterest. (I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.) The link takes you to a photography site, so I have no clue who to give the credit to. Now, on Pinterest, I pin two types of things: Things I see because they're nice to dream about and I think "Maybe one day . . . " and things I think are worth the cost and effort (recipes to try, money saving tips, organization advice, etc.) to give a try. As soon as I saw this picture, I knew I was going to try it. When you shop sales and use coupons, you can find these materials for a very reasonable price. So here's the after picture. It's amazing what a new wreath and a quick cleaning can do for a door!

Here's the inspiration and my 'comparison' photo. I do not know how they got a heavy wooden letter to stay perfectly in place on a lightweight wreath, but more power to them. I painted floral wire to match my letter and secured that bad boy!