Little Ruffle Skirt... Big Ruffle Skirt

For our Little Ladybug's first Valentine's day I wanted her to have a special outfit.  This naturally led me to make something since I couldn't afford to go out and buy a new outfit for her.  What I came up with was a ruffle skirt with matching heart onesie and heart hair clips.  I would love to share it with you and to try to explain how I made my ruffle skirt... because it really is easy and you can do it! :-)

This was the best pic I got with details of the outfit... sorry about the crying... she didn't like holding still.  Silly girl!

I also made myself a ruffle skirt... and I love how it turned out.  I was worried it was a little too "80's prom queen" but everyone assured me that it wasn't.  It made me feel cute and girly, and really, what girl doesn't love an outfit like that?!?!?

Okay... so now how to make this fun skirt.  After that, more pictures! :-)

To make the Little Ladybug's skirt I started with a rectangle of lining fabric that was 10 inches by 27inches.  I sewed the 10 inch edges together to make a tube.... make sense?  Then I hemmed one edge of the tube. 

Next I cut the first ruffle.  Now, for the first ruffle I didn't actually ruffle it at all... I let the elastic waistband do that for me. :-)  My first piece of ruffle fabric was 5 inches by 27 inches.  I then sewed it in a tube like the lining and hemmed one edge. 

After I was done hemming I stuck the ruffle tube into the lining tube.  To do this have the lining tube turned wrong side out.  Then stick the ruffle (turned wrong side out) inside the lining.  Once you have this done you should see the right side of the lining facing the wrong side of the ruffle.  The right side of your ruffle should be inside the tube.  Got it???

Next you are going to fold down (together) the edge of the fabric.  You are now going to make the casing for your elastic.  Basically I took the edge and folded it down a half inch or so (depending on the width of your elastic).  I made sure to fold the raw edges under so that they would no longer be seen.  I hope this is all making sense... I hate that I forgot to take pictures!  Pin this all the way around making sure to leave an opening for your elastic to go in.  I left my opening in the back right where the seam was when I made the "tube" of fabric.

After you have your casing sewn you have two choices.  You can add your elastic now ooooor you can wait and add it at the end and move on to the other two ruffles.  I chose to do my other two ruffles first then add the elastic at the end. 

To make my other two ruffles I cut lengths of material that were 3 1/2 inches wide by 41 inches.  Basically I made the ruffle length 1 1/2 times the size of the lining material so that I had enough material to create the ruffles. For example, my lining was 27 inches, therefore, I did 27 plus 13.5 (half of 27... I did round up to 14 though) to get my ruffle length... hope that makes sense.

Next I sewed these two pieces into tubes.  Then I hemmed them.

After hemming one edge I used my ruffle foot on my sewing machine to create the ruffles.  If you don't have a ruffle foot you can create your ruffles the old fashioned way... use the longest stitch length your machine has and sew.  Do not backstitch!  Then pull the bobbin thread to ruffle. 

Next I simply pinned on my ruffles so that the top edge of my ruffle was under the bottom of the previous ruffle and sewed it on.  I did this with both of my ruffles. 

At this point you can decide to add more ruffles... ooor I simply hemmed my lining up a bit more to hide it under the last ruffle.  Your choice. 

Next I added my elastic.  16 1/2 inches of elastic for the size skirt I made.  I always attach a safety pin to my elastic and just push it through my casing.  When I get to the end I sew the ends of the elastic together and then sew up my hole in my casing.  If you want to add a special tag or anything add it before sewing up this hole. 

And your done!  I promise... it really is easy!  Sorry for the lack of pics... i will have to make another skirt and document it with pictures!

For the onesie I simply got a cheapo plain onesie.  Then I cut a heart out of white felt and another heart that was a little bit smaller out of my skirt fabric.  I then sewed the fabric heart to the felt heart... then I simply pinned the whole thing onto my onesie and sewed it in place.  Easy as pie!

For the adorable hair clips I did the same thing as the onesie applique only in a smaller size.  And presto!  Valentine outfit complete!

The measurements I just mentioned fit my little girl.  She is 11 months old but on the small size.  I would say these measurements would work pretty well for a 6 to 12 month size.  You can adjust to make any size skirt though.  Simply measure the waist and then do that measurement plus half.  Sooo, if your waist is 16 inches then your lining material would be 16 inches plus 8 inches = 24 inches.  Make sense?  So easy!   Your elastic measurement is simply the waist measurement.

Okay, I hope all this made sense.  If you have any questions leave a comment and I will try to explain better!

More pics... :-)

How do you turn these... grrr???

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Happy Sewing!!

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