A new spring skirt

Here’s my facebook status from last night:

at 8:00, as she is getting ready for bed, the Big Girl says: I wish I had a pretty skirt to wear with my new sweater tomorrow for pictures… Yeah. Guess what I’m doing…


Here’s my added comment from about 2 hours later:

It’s done! 12 pleats, invisible zipper and all.

100_9592 100_9593 
100_9594 100_9596
Here’s the nitty-gritty for the sewists out there:
I didn’t use a pattern for this skirt.  I just folded and pleated fabric until I got what I wanted.  I knew:

  • her waist is 23 inches
  • I wanted a front flat piece about 4 inches wide
  • I wanted 4 1-inch pleats on either side of the front flat area (check out this skirt on our favorite doll)
  • I wanted 2 inches on either side
  • I wanted the back like the font
  • I had a short invisible zipper in my stash to use
  • it needed to have shorts built in because she’d be wearing it to school.


Basically, I cut two rectangles 18 x 30.  Using one rectangle, I marked it in the center.  Then I measured two inches to one side and started making my pleats.  After 4 pleats, I measured out 3 more inches (2 for design, 1 for seam allowance).  I did this same process for the other half of the front, just folding my pleats in the opposite direction.  Then, I made the back piece the same way.  I traced a pair of shorts to make the bloomers inside the skirt.  I put all this together, stitched up one side seam, added the zipper to the other and topped it off with a waist band.  Viola!  Instant skirt.  (Ha!)

She saw it this morning and loved it!  I grabbed these pictures just before the sun came up.



3 thoughts on “A new spring skirt”

  1. She looks as happy as she is pretty in these photos! The skirt is so pretty and the color of the sweater will be so pretty in pictures.

  2. when i first read this, i read '12 hours later'! i thought, 'wow, she's one determined mama. she must have been exhausted!' and then i realized it said 2 hours. haha! it's a very cute skirt! i'm just beginning to sew and i can't wait until i can do skirts and other clothes for my girl!

Comments, Questions, Bits of Love

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.