Skirt with double ruffle

 

You might remember this photo from the 9th day of my Me-Made-May ’13 challenge. I brought the kids to school in the morning wearing the skirt as it had been when my sister gave it to me a few years ago, but it was suddenly completely unwearable as it was. So I went back home and gave it a face-lift, cutting off a bit and adding a double ruffle so that you could see the previously hidden lining, too. (That day I also wore my first pair of leggings refashioned from a shirt and a melon seed necklace.)

 

First I marked where I wanted the skirt to come up to while wearing it and I decided how long I wanted the ruffle. I separated the outside fabric from the lining and carefully folded it. I wanted to use the original hem for the ruffle and also took advantage of the fact that the fabric at the bottom was wider to ruffle it, so I first cut off the length that I wanted for the ruffle and then cut off the 14 cm I wanted to shorten the skirt by from the center part of the skirt. That bit of fabric will be used in the future for some other project.

 

Then I folded the lining the same way. First I cut off the bottom hemmed part the same height as the pink part (you can see it in this photo underneath the pink part). Then I placed a part of the outer fabric over the lining. I wanted some of the lining to peek out from underneath, so I cut it a little longer. (Don’t pay any attention to the central part cut in half. I’d made a mistake with my calculations before fixing it.) In the end, after sewing it all together, I thought the lining was sticking out too much, so I shortened it a bit simply by putting it through the overlocker again.

 

I didn’t take any pictures of how to ruffle the fabric (you can see how to prepare the strips in this other ruffled skirt), but here you can see how I joined the strips to the skirt, pinning the edges (ruffled and non) of the two pieces, good sides together, and then sewing them together with the overlocker/serger. This type of sewing machine makes it super easy, but if you don’t have one you can just sew a regular straight stitch and zig zag the edges to prevent fraying. I did this with both the outer and lining fabrics. In the original skirt, the backside of the lining’s seams were facing the back of the outer fabric so that, from inside the skirt, you couldn’t see that uglier seam backside. But as I wanted the lining to be visible at the bottom, I turned it around the other way. You can see in this picture how, inside the skirt, you can see the nice side of the seams on the upper part of the lining and the backside in the ruffle. That way you can see the good side on the outside of the ruffle. I hope I explained that clearly.

 

Here’s a detail of the ruffle from the outside. It’s just a little ruffled, just a bit of the lining (with the good side of the seams) peeks out, and both parts of the ruffle have the original hems.

 

I’d spaced the two ruffles perfectly from one another, but when I shortened the lining, I didn’t do it perfectly, so in some places it’s a bit longer, but you can’t tell so much when it’s worn.

 

Much, MUCH better now! Cute, fun, lightweight… (and I love it with those refashioned leggings!)

 

Take a bow, Miss Skirt! We love you! (Well, at least I do!)