Sidetracked: The Simple Skirt

As I mentioned earlier, I had some time to myself at family camp to do some sewing for Grace with some fabric I already had.  After looking through my stash, I planned to make three peasant dresses and possibly some simple skirts using a tutorial from the same blog as the peasant dress pattern.

I tend to do my clothes shopping for the kids a few months to a year ahead of time, and shop from the clearance racks for clothes for them to grow into.  I don't go to Gymboree often, but when I do, I'm usually able to find items for the same price as Target or Kohl's…or less.  And since they hold up so well, I'm always happy about that.  I had a top for Grace that I had found but without a coordinating bottom.  And then I realized that I had the perfect fabric for a skirt already on hand.  I had planned to make a dress or something with it, but the skirt would be even better.  The ruffle is made from a fabric that I used to make a replacement diaper bag for the first diaper bag I made.  Somehow I didn't take a picture of the second one, but I used it a lot and wore right through it.  The colors are a little crazy on these pictures for some reason, so use your imagination!  Here's the first skirt and top.  She can wear these to kindergarten this fall.

 After I found the match above, I decided to look through the clearance racks and see if there were any t-shirts hanging around that would match my fabric stash.  I found some!  I decided to make a total of three dresses and three skirts at camp, but after bruising my tailbone and catching a slight cold, I didn't finish the final two at camp.  I sewed them at home, which means I shirked some of my normal home responsibilities, but they waited for me!  Here's the second skirt.  The top section is made from a fat quarter I had on hand, and the ruffle is made from more of the above ruffle fabric and another fat quarter I had on hand.  It's a little goofy with the three different fabrics, but  I like it.

And here's the final skirt.  I made it out of fabric I had leftover from this dress.  She'll probably wear this one next year as it's a little bigger, and so is the T-shirt.

Thanks again to Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom for this tutorial.  It was quick and satisfying to make.  Oh, and I followed her very easy directions except that, instead of making the ruffle two times the width of the skirt, I made it three times as wide.  I wanted a very ruffly ruffle!  Grace is really happy with her dresses and skirts, and I think they'll each fit her for a couple of years because of the forgiving fit of each one.