Easy DIY Baby Skirt

Sorry, sorry, sorry that this post is very much happening after Mother’s Day instead of before like I intended! Our internet stopped working the day I was going to write it up and then we left town the next day and then with vacationing…yadda, yadda, yadda. Sorry. Let’s still be friends, mmkay?

So remember how I was crazy and made all of us matching outfits for Easter? Well, this was what I whipped out for Wendy. I had considered doing a dress but I’m super glad I decided on a skirt because it came together so quickly and after that week of crazed sewing, I didn’t have much patience (or time) to work out the intricacies of a dress.

The skirt was so easy and it took me less than an hour from start to finish.

Here’s how I made it.

First, I did some measurements to see how much material I needed. Wendy was about 14 inches around her waist (width) and 7 inches from her waist to her knees (length). For the width, I added an extra inch for seam allowance, and for length I added about 5 inches for the ruffle around the top and to hem. I’m always a bit of a wimp and throw in extra inches knowing I can cut back later (when I hem) if I need to. Rather be safe than sorry! So I had a rectangle of fabric that was 15 inches by 12 inches.

As you can see in the picture of the skirt, there’s a little ruffle at the very top followed by the waistband. First, I pressed the edge of the fabric down a half inch. I don’t have a serger, so where I’m able to, I like to hide the edge of raw fabric. I also ironed the fabric at about 2 1/2 inches. That would give me room for a ruffle at the top and for me to sew an elastic in place for the waist.

Here you can see how I mapped out where I would sew. I gave room for 1 inch of ruffle at the very top. Next is the elastic. I sewed a 1 inch gap to fit the elastic through, which was plenty of space since my elastic was 3/4 inch. And then I sewed down very close to the bottom to hide that raw edge.

I attached a safety pin to the end of my elastic (I cut my elastic right at 14 inches, knowing that about 1/2 inch would turn into seam allowance, making the part around her waist 13 1/2 inches-tight enough to be snug without being too tight), and guided it through the fabric. I also safety pinned the other side of the elastic TO the fabric so that I didn’t lose it. Make sure your elastic doesn’t get twisted! That’ll make anyone go crazy!

Once my elastic was all the way through, I overlapped it about 1/2 an inch, and used a zigzag stitch to sew the ends together (just like pictured above, one side laying right on top of the other side).

Okay, so at this point I had a ruffle and an elastic, I just needed to sew my skirt into a tube. I’m realizing now that since you can’t see the full skirt in the pictures, it’s a little hard to visualize what’s going on. Sorry! I’ll do better next time!

But basically…with the rectangle of fabric I had, I folded it so right sides faced each other and the ruffle was at the top. I sewed all the way down the length of the skirt WITHOUT sewing on where the elastic is. That part just stays un-sewed. Also, no serger and it’s not convenient to turn in the edges so this particular seam (which is the back of the skirt) stays raw.

THEN the only thing left to do was hem!

And there it is! Finished baby skirt! Sew easy! Okay, okay, sorry that was cheesy…but seriously, it was a super quick project!

I know my sewing projects aren’t anything revolutionary and I’m not tech savvy enough to provide real guidance (like a pattern!) but I love sewing and I love sharing how and what I sew. Sewing clothes is definitely something I want to improve upon and I gotta start somewhere!

And luckily my particular model makes anything look good 🙂