Scrappy skirt tutorial

Here is my entry for the Sew mama Sew scrap buster contest. A scrappy skirt for little girls!

Here is what you will need:

*fabric scraps of course

* 3/4" wide elastic, I like the no roll kind

*thread

* lace for the bottom

First, dump out your scraps, it seems I have acquired a mountain of them.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best, I took them after my children were in bed because this skirt is a Christmas present for one of my girls.

You need to piece together fabrics so they are 44-45" wide. The length is determined by how long you want the finished skirt plus 2".

I wanted my skirt to have a 14" finished length, so, I wanted my fabric to be 45" wide by 16" long.

I pieced my fabrics in strips first using my serger, you could use a sewing machine, it would just take a bit longer because you probably want to zigzag the edges so they don't fray all over.

Then I pieced all the strips together again with a serger. I ended up with not enough width, so I had to piece more strips to add to get the full 45" width.

After I had a big enough piece of fabric, I carefully folded it in half and then trimmed it to the size I needed it.

Now, you'll have to excuse me I got a bit excited and forgot to take some pictures of the last steps I did. After trimming my fabric to the size I needed, I first added lace to the bottom again with the serger. Then I folded my piece in half right sides together and serged it into a tube. Then you turn it right side out and it should look like the picture above.

Now for the waistband. First fold the skirt's top edge 1/2" towards the wrong side of the fabric and press.

Now fold it over again 7/8" and press.

Now, you will stitch the waistband's lower folded edge, leaving about a 2" opening to put the elastic in.

Cut a piece of elastic your desired length, I usually just wrap the elastic around my girl's waist and cut it a couple inches shorter than their waist. I use a large safety pin attached to the end of the elastic to guide the elastic in the waistband casing. At this point, I will pin the ends of the elastic together and try the skirt on the girl it is intended for and make any adjustments to the elastic length that I need to. Then I sew together the elastic with a zigzag stitch. And stitch the casing closed.

And now you have a finished scrappy skirt!