Grace says: Made to measure couture for you and your friends! This light summer skirt is a sweet and simple way of using pretty patterned fabric, and it’s perfect paired with a plain t-shirt and sandals. Just check your fabric isn’t see through before you wear it out of the house…

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Katy says: I made this sweet Russian Doll skirt for my six year old daughter. Despite a wide choice of fabric, she insisted on this one, which I didn’t have quite enough of, so I used fabric 1 1/2 times the waist measurement instead of 2 times. This gives the skirt a little less flounce, but since the fabric was quite thick that worked out okay. I tried to get her to pose for a photo in it, but apparently she was “far too busy, Mummy,” doing something with snails in the garden. I didn’t ask. 

Simple Skirt

Supplies:

Fabric

2cm wide elastic

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What to do:

Measure your waist and the length from your waist to your knee

Measure out your ironed fabric so you have a rectangle twice as long as your waist measurement, and as wide as your waist to knee measurement plus 7cm

Sew a zig zag stitch all around the edges of your fabric to prevent fraying

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Lay your fabric out landscape and hem the bottom of your fabric

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Fold in half, right sides together, and sew a 1cm seam along the short side, to give you a tube of fabric with the hem at the bottom

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Measure your elastic and cut a piece the length of your waist measurement plus 3cm

With your skirt still inside out, fold the top over by 3cm, to give you a fold just wider than your elastic

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Iron in place, pin, and sew around the bottom of the fold, removing the pins as you go. Leave a 5cm gap at the side seam, to give you a fabric channel for your elastic

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Attach a large safety pin to one end of your elastic, and pin the other end to the fabric by the gap at the seam

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Use the safety pin to feed the elastic through the channel, making sure it doesn’t twist

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Sew the two ends of the elastic together, then adjust the gathers that have formed at the top of your skirt until they are all even

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Sew closed the gap you left, so that the elastic is completely hidden

Wear with pride!

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