Fleur de Skirt

There is something so romantic about wild flowers and when I saw this fabric my heart immediately leaped to visions of designs to create this sleek, feminine A-line skirt.


A perfect first project to share with my new love affair- my serger!


Although I was tempted a few times to go back to my trusty sewing machine, I stood strong and used my serger for every part of this shirt.

From the side hems

To the rolled hem bottom

My personal favorite touch :)

I even used the serger to make my wide band elastic casing, which I only had to rip out and start over once! Seam ripping and manual re-reading considered, I was still astonished by how quickly I turned out this skirt using the serger for the first time and designing my own pattern!

I don't know what I love more my serger or my new skirt?!

It also helps that I just really love the wild flower pattern on this cotton fabric and how lovely it looks with the form fitting a-line skirt!

But not too form fitting for a game of hide and seek of course!

As you can see, I'm not a very creative hider though :)

ZIP-a-dee-doo-dah skirt!

My, oh my what a wonderful day!

Sometimes things just happen for a reason. But, isn't it usually the case that when the thing is happening, for the life of you, you cannot see a reason in sight! Over the last two weeks our computer has slowly been existing on the fading strings of life support. On Saturday night "Pute's" clicker stopped clicking leaving his loved ones behind without a place to go to check email, search the web and blog all about it.... it was a sad and lonely weekend.

So why zip-a-dee-doo-dah?? Well, let me tell you!! In my period of mourning, I decided to splurge and buy brand new fabric that totally inspired me to do the one sensibly thing that always makes me feel better.

So I did.

I turned to the one machine that I knew would lift my spirits and have me in stitches in no time (I couldn't resist a teensy pun). And I am SO GLAD I DID!!! Look at this lovely spring skirt I made!




The best part of all is that I actually didn't intend for this to be a skirt. I was going to sew matching shirts for Sienna and me, but after looking at the fabric long enough I just really wanted it to be a skirt. Do you ever do that?





I never thought I'd say this, but luckily in this case, my measurements for my bust and waist are close enough that I could fairly easily convert it to a skirt even though I had already made a few cuts in the fabric. It was just a tad tight pulling over my hips, so I knew what I had to do and I didn't like it... not one bit. But considering I had no alternatives (where things happen for a reason come in), I had no choice but to tackle sewing in a ZIPPER!!!


Would you believe me if I said it was ridiculously EASY?! Why was I so afraid of this before? I was so excited that I figured it out on my first try with honestly no trouble at all that Sienna and I just had to dance all around with me in my new skirt singing "zip-a-dee-doo-dah" and it seems perfectly fitting to name the skirt as such :)

The skirt itself was pretty quick and easy, would anyone be interested in tutorials for this stuff?

Matching skirts for Mommy and Me

In only 30 minutes of TV!!

That's it! I can't hide my true feelings any longer... I LOVE MATCHING OUTFITS. I realize it's too ridiculous for my husband and I to match like teenagers in love any more. But what I have discovered is that it's totally acceptable and even cute to do with my kids! The best thing is that it's Spring and there is nothing easier to pull off matching than Mommy and me skirts and dresses.

Wanna try?

Supplies:
1) A 20-30 min episode of Super Why (or other favorite cartoon) for 'the little Mommy' :)
2) Wide band elastic (3" for Mommy and 3/4 to 1" for 'the little Mommy')
3) About 2-3 yards of matching fabric depending on the length of Mommy's skirt
4) Pins, pins and more pins. I know, I'm a recovering non-pinner myself, but it does help for this one.
5) A tape measure

Step 1.

Measure around your waist or where you want to wear the skirt and cut the wide elastic about 1" smaller. Remember to stretch out your elastic as much as you can first, so it doesn't do so after you've worn your "at-one-time-the-perfect-fit" skirt a few times.

Step 2.
With a zig zag stitch, sew the ends of the elastic band together using a 1/4 inch seam.

Step 3.
Measure the desired length of your skirt starting from the bottom of the wide waist band. I wanted my skirt to hit above my knees about 18" total (I know, you're probably thinking that's just above your knees?!!).
My waist band was 3" wide, so I did these calculations:

18" (total length) -3" (elastic band width) - 1/4" (seam allowance on waist band) + 3/4" (seam allowance for 1/2" at the bottom and 1/4" to sew onto the elastic) = 15 1/2" long fabric

The width of your fabric will be 1.5 times the length of your elastic.

So my total cut was 15 1/2" x 52 1/2" (or 1.5(35")

Step 4.
Sew your fabric together in one huge tube! A French seam will help you cut down on your seam allowance and has a nice professional finish to it.

Step 5:
Here's where you get to use your pins!
Pin your fabric tube to your elastic tube in sections starting with 4 and working your way down.


All the way down...
Are we there yet?

Step 6.
We're almost done! If your cartoon is almost over you can insert snack into child's mouth as a last resort :) "The little mommy" skirt is much quicker!



Use a zig zag stitch and a 90/14 or 100/16 size needle to sew your fabric onto your elastic. Carefully stretch the elastic as you sew. I gently hold the back and pull tighter on the front as the machine feeds the fabric in. It's hard to describe, but it feels pretty natural once you get going. Regardless, go slow and take your time here. Also, don't forget to remove the pins a few inches ahead.

And it's just that easy!




The "Little Mommy Skirt" is done very similarly with a few small adjustments that actually make it easier.

1) Instead of sectioning the fabric off to sew onto the elastic, I simply ruffled it first and then sewed it on. I didn't do this with the Mommy skirt, because I think the section gives it a more even ruffle. With the "little skirt" it's less noticeable, so why not ditch those silly pins?

2) I added an extra layer of ruffle to the bottom of the skirt by ruffling a piece of fabric 2 times the length of the waist and pulling the ruffles until it was the same size as the bottom of the skirt.

3) I cheated. Just a little. Instead of sewing the "little me" skirt onto elastic, I had some abandoned white cotton shorts from last summer's $1 section at Target that I sewed the fabric right onto!!! Shhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I'm so bad, I know. But it's practically the same thing, right? You still have to stretch the elastic as you sew :)



Now go scoop up your patient little lady and give her lots of hugs and kisses for letting you sew adorably matching outfits!




Maybe she'll like it so much, she won't mind hanging around a little while longer while you make her a shirt to go with it.