Twirly Skirts

Aren't they just adorable! The bulk of my day was spent in the creation of these little gems. (As opposed to the bulk of every day being devoted to the rearing of the two other little gems.) Having been inspired by this thornberry post the night before, I raided my stash and our own versions were born. I used a double length ( two selvage to selvage or 90 inches) for the little one (size 4T?) and a triple length for the larger (size 7?). I didn't ruffle the bottom pink and green since the skirts were already pretty full and the vintage fabric was pretty close on amount. Also, I am frankly tired of making ruffles after the polka dots. Then I decided that the lining I had planned out of a white sheet to compensate for the discomfort of all the seams in the patchwork material, would be better served as a set of shorts. After all, these are twirly skirts and a little built in modesty is a bonus! I took an existing pair of pants/ shorts for each and cut around very generously, as I didn't want them to be constrictive and the sheeting obviously wouldn't be stretching at all. I assembled the shorts and then attached the brown waist band to them. Next I gathered the skirt material and attached it to the other side of the brown waistband fabric. Lastly I folded the two flat together as they would be when worn and sewed them together with three seams. Two to create the elastic pocket and a third embroidery stitch at the top of the tall wait bands for decoration. They were an instant hit and the matching hair band/ties felt like such a fun touch. I got the hairband idea years ago on Martha TV show about ribbon hairbands and the Bug just loves this sort of thing. She can do her own hair and mama isn't gently suggesting that she remove the hair from her face, paint and food all day. (You catch that 'gently suggesting'? We can all aspire.) As soon as the skirts reached the final try-on, matching shirts, shoes etc needed to be located and we went off to the park to get some pictures. Oops I mean to get some exercise and play in our new clothes. No ulterior motive in there at all! Of course it was 4:15 and we had to be back to fix inner before 5PM, hence the upcoming Breakfast For Dinner posting on a year without eating out. Whatever the motivation for the trip, the fresh air felt good after so much cold indoor weather lately and the skirts passed the twirl test with flying colors. Literally.