Ruffle skirt tutorial

Today I will be showing you how to make one of my favorite skirts.  It also happens to be one of the easiest to make.

My 15 year old daughter, Emily made the skirt so that I could take pictures.
I get my ruffle fabric from a small, local fabric store but you can also purchase it online here.  They also carry some darling elastic for the waist band. If you happen to live near a Hobby Lobby they carry a few colors and you can use your 40% off coupon to get it for around $8.99/yard.
Most ruffle fabric is 48-50" wide so in order to determine how much you will need, measure from your hip to where you would like the skirt to fall to. Ruffle fabric is a bit pricey online but you won't even need a yard for most projects. My daughter measured 23" so we didn't even need quite a yard. We ended up buying a yard to use the excess for another project which I will show you next week.
To figure out the waist measurement you will need to measure your waist and then cut your fabric to 1 1/2 times your measurement. For example, if your waist is 30" you would add that plus half which would make it 45". That is what you will cut your fabric to. Once you have done that you will need to match up and pin the bottom of each ruffle. Pin all the way to the bottom.

Next sew along the edge, keeping the edge of the fabric lined up with the edge of your presser foot.

Now, instead of measuring your waist with a measuring tape, just wrap the elastic around your waist and cut it right at the end. Do not have any overhang. Simply put the elastic right sides together and sew along the edge of your presser foot.

Now, line up the seam on your elastic with the seam on your skirt. Pin right sides together. Fold the elastic in half and the skirt and line up those two points on the opposite side of that first pin.
Line up your pins and pin the two opposite sides. You should have four pins now.

To sew the elastic on simply lower your needle onto the elastic seam and then pull your elastic tight until the ruffle fabric is straight.

Once you start sewing you will be pulling the fabric toward the back of your machine with your left hand and pulling forward on the other side. Be careful not to sew your ruffles in between the elastic and the fabric. Once you get to the next pin, remove it and do the same thing all the way around the skirt. Turn right side out. If it needs to be trimmed just pull up a layer and cut along the straight fabric.

Done!

 I hope this made sense. Please feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions.

Dana