Layered circle skirt
For my next “princess” skirt for the nieces I made this ruffled one from a Barbie print curtain that my mother-in-law gave me.
The curtain looked brand new, it was from the in-laws new house in the bedroom that our boys sleep in when we stay, and has now been replaced. I just knew it would make an awesome fairy princess skirt.
I’m not saying which niece is getting this one but if any of my family are reading this they can probably guess. Shh!
It is made from three circular layers of different lengths, with gathered tulle strips sewn on the lining layers. “What?” you say, just like this:
I made a circular skirt pattern for the longest layer and marked the two shorter ones on it, then cut them all out.
This is what the cut pieces looked like:
Then I did the same with the lining layers. Yip, this skirt has six layers, which makes it very interesting to sew on elastic for the waist but more about that later.
I’ve been storing some pink tulle in my stash for years, waiting for a project just like this to use it all up. The tulle was strip cut into pieces then gathered into a ruffle.
I sewed the ruffled tulle strips onto each layer so the edge was aligned with the hem. For the hems I just used a zig-zag stitch, I really couldn’t face properly hemming all that fabric! This picture shows the top layer with the ruffle stitched on.
I had to put this picture in because I just loved how the skirt layers looked on top of one another. For some reason it makes me think of a giant wedding cake!
Then came the elastic. I knew I would have a real problem trying to sew through 12 layers if I just folded the top over, so I joined the outer and the lining first, slipped the elastic on, then stitched a casing seam under the elastic to hold it up. Hope this makes sense, it is quite hard to explain.
All done. This is my favorite picture, the angle shows off the layers nicely.
Now I just have to make some kind of flower circlet headdress thing.
How to make flowers from fairy skirt circles
I was inspired by these gorgeous felt flowers made by Koala Brains
and it gave me an idea of how to use up all those leftover circles you get after cutting out circular/fairy skirts.
I will show you how I did mine, with 5 petals. My method is a little different, after having a play around I found this was the best way with larger circles, in flimsy fabrics. The size of flower you end up with depends on the size of your circle.
1. Find centre of circle by folding in half, then in half again. Mark with chalk on the wrong side of fabric.
2. Mark a line from the centre of circle to the outer edge.
3. Mark 4 more lines from the centre evenly spaced around the circle. This will involve some maths.
360 degrees divided by 5 petals = 72 degrees.
I used a protractor to measure 72 degrees between each line.
5. Cut thread at least 20cm longer than the width of your circle and thread onto a needle. Secure thread at the edge of circle and sew/tack along line to the centre.
6. Leave a tail approx 10cm long, or if you have 5 needles available to use, just leave the needle on.
7. Repeat with other 4 lines.
8. Pull threads one at a time and stitch to secure in the centre with a knot. Be careful not to tangle the needles!
9. Secure and cut threads, turn over to right side. Ta da!
Now you can have fun with them by cutting some circles smaller and layering the flowers.
Make a fairy hair clip/barrette by attaching a hair clip finding, or a brooch by attaching to a pin-back or…
