dress shirt to Paper Bag Skirt - TUTORIAL

I love love love this skirt, but I really don't like the shirt my daughter was wearing or that she was fighting with me so much about taking the photos.  grrr... child.  

Anyway...

Here it is

Items Needed:

One dress shirt.

elastic

thread

ribbon

bias tape

Here is the shirt I used.  It has a really fun detail on the front.

 Close up of the ruffle detail.

 Cut the bottom part of the shirt off, just under the arms.

 Run a straight stitch down the edge of the button closure so there are no holes.

I'm pretty sure my sewing machine needle shouldn't be bent like this.  hmmm.

Take it to your ironing board and iron edge down a 1/4 inch.  Fold it another 1/4 inch and iron one more time.  Then, fold down 2 inches and iron again.  This is so you do not have a raw edge exposed and it doesn't fray in the laundry (I forgot to take a picture of this part).

Sew the part you just ironed down, leaving a 1 inch gap to thread your elastic.  Sew another line a little more than 3/4 inch above the your last line.  This is to make your elastic casing. 

 Cut a piece of elastic an inch longer than your child's waist measurement and thread it through your casing.  Sew it closed.

Using black double fold bias tape, make a few belt loops (I made four).  and sew them down evenly around your skirt.

Thread a piece of ribbon through the belt loops.

Here is a closer look at what the top hem of your skirt will look like.  

I'm going to make another one of these with another shirt this week.  I'll post more details pictures soon.

Skirt tutorial

Last night I put together this skirt for my daughter out of some scrap fabric. I used less than a 1/2 of a yard of fabric. Here is a quick tutorial



Cut the fabric from salvage to salvage in the lengths shown above. (they are folded in half in the picture) So, your main piece (flower fabric) is salvage to salvage x 7" and so on.

Pin the three inch piece to the 7 inch piece together, right sides facing. Sew them together with a straight stitch. If you are lucky enough to have a serger, serge your edges now. If you are unlucky to have a serger (like me), just zig zag stitch your seams together.



Pin the 4 inch piece to the other side of the main piece, right sides together and straight stitch together, followed by a serged edge or a zig zag stitch.



Pin the raw edges together, right sides facing.


Because your pieces are cut right to the salvage edge, make sure that when you sew your seam, you don't have any of the salvage edge coming through. Sew with a straight stitch and finish with your serger or zig zag stitch.



Now get out the iron and ironing board. Don't skip this step!!! Ironing your seams will leave you with a nicer finish on your finished project. On the 4 inch side, iron down 1/4 inch.



Now iron it down in half so that the ironed edge of your fabric hits at your previous seam (where the 4 inch fabric meets the main fabric).



Top stitch this seam, leaving a 1 inch gap to run your elastic.



Now iron down 1/4 on the opposite side (the 3 inch fabric strip).


Now fold that hem over and iron again.


Sew a simple straight stitch.


You should now be left with this. Simply cut a piece of elastic to fit your childs waist and thread it into the 1 inch opening. Sew the elastic together and sew the 1 inch hole closed.

Enjoy this super simple skirt!!!