***Campbell doesn’t usually wear skirts around the house. He just happens to be about the same size as Sheri’s kid, who I often sew for.***
If you can sew even a little, you can make a twirl skirt. And, skirts for girls don’t take very much fabric so even if you screw up big time, you’re not out much. Ha! Here’s my experience plus some patterns and links if you feel like making one.
If you’re afraid of gathering, try this skirt from House on Hill Road. All the gathering happens when you thread the elastic through the waistband. Yay! I’ve found that cheap elastic works better than the nice no-roll stuff. If you shop sales/clearance, you can make this skirt for under $5. And, you only need 2 different fabrics and all the pieces are rectangles. Super easy, but addicting. I think Macy has 5 of these in her closet right now. And her American Girl dolls have some, too.
The very first twirl skirt I ever made came from an ebook. This seller used to be on Ebay and I bought it from her there. I only bought the skirt pattern (middle left in that big mess of misguided photoshop) and it was way less than $20. The ebook was good, but I probably could have figured it all out myself in an hour or two. If you like step by step directions and pictures, buy an ebook. Here are a bunch.
I’ve also used this ebook. The only thing I didn’t like is that when made exactly according to the directions, the underskirt hangs out a bit far or weird or something. Here’s the first one I made:
And here are a couple of others I made where I decided to shorten the underskirt by about half an inch so that the top skirt hits right at the ruffle instead of a ways above it:
Really…they’re easy. It’s all straight lines and a little gathering. And I SWEAR Campbell didn’t keep any of these.
Try it. You know you want to.
Other tutorials:
On Saturday I made another unsuccessful attempt at threading my bobbin.
Wasn’t I going to pay you to make me one??
I would love to make my girls’ each one, and I’m going to trust when you say even if you only sew a little you can do it–because I truly only sew a little! I may have to ask you some questions though…
Those are so cute. I’m also tempted to try it for my girls…if only they could look as cute as Campbell!
kermit-the-frog is my long lost twin sister.
This is great! I was just researching how to make these. Thanks, you are my inspiration!
You inspired me. I made some too and you can see them on my blog: http://mylaughinplace.blogspot.com/2008/10/twirl-skirts.html
LOVE THEM!