Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Infant Circle Skirts

I have to be honest, I absolutely love making circle skirts. Partly because they are just absolutely adorable, and partly because they come together so quickly. Today I've got 2 new ones to show you, following the same basic process that I have with all the others.
I made these in preparation for baby KO, and I figure they'll be so easy to just slip over a little plain white/solid colored onesie for a super cute outfit.
Here they are together.

These are the fat quarters I picked up while shopping Hancock's sale a few weekends (probably closer to months now) ago. And the pink polka dot elastic was bought there also.
This was the project I had in mind for them, so I purposely picked out coordinating colors for the ruffled hem on the skirts.

Since the ruffled hem is the only difference- here's a quick talk through, because I have a hard time remembering to take pictures through the steps and really I'm not posting anything that you can't find a pattern/tutorial for somewhere else on-line, especially since that's where I usually get my ideas.
I knew that I wanted the hem to be about an inch, so I cut 3 pieces off the long end of the fat quarter (21-22 inches, depending on the brand and shrinkage) that were 2.5 inches wide. I sewed them together to make one very long piece. Then I ironed it in half, so it was only 1.25" tall. Then I ran basting stitches to gather it to size. Then I sewed the ruffle to the skirt, using a .25" hem so I had my 1" ruffle. I don't have a serger, so I did a zigzag stitch over the exposed edge to prevent fraying. And then I ironed the ruffle down and stitched above the ruffle to secure the edge of the ruffle to the skirt, keeping it in place.
If you ask me, the gather on the pink is better than the red, but on a cute infant no one will notice.

Here are shots of them individually:

I will say, that as much as I love making circle skirts, I have a love-hate relationship with visible elastic. I'm always terrified that the amount of tension I need to attach it properly will cause uneven stitches and ugly seams. Luckily with this project, my tread matched perfectly to the elastic and is better hidden, but there have been times when I use a contrasting thread for decoration and ended up wishing I didn't. Oh well, sometimes -okay, usually, it isn't perfect, but it's still a labor of love.

That's all for now,
Jo!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I'd love to know what you think...