Twirly skirt!

My niece is of an age where she loves "twirly skirts," and I got a request from my sister-in-law to supply some.  And JAF was having a sale on their Tutti Fruitti collection, which are basically lightweight, seersucker-like prints.  So I figured, why not have some fun?  I bought several to go together, then realized that without any measurements to go on, I had zero idea how to make something that might turn out wearable.

Enter the Sophia tiered skirt, from Funktional Threads.  I know it's basically an everyday tiered peasant skirt, but since I had no measurements, I wanted sizes and cutting measurements so that I had a better chance of making something usable.  I chose the size 4 because my niece is 3.5 years old, and apparently it worked out well, because it's a little big.  (Yay!)

I really liked the results.  As you can see, this is basically a circle skirt - it's even too full to lie flat as a circle!  I'm not sure that this would have worked as well in fabrics that weren't so lightweight - it might need wider elastic to still stay up.  The ratio on these layers are 2:1, with each successive tier being twice the width of the previous.  This means that you're gathering 7.5 yards of ruffle!  Yikes!  

The instructions tell you to gather each layer by stitching two lines of gathering stitches, then pulling them tight.  I think that's a recipe for broken threads and much frustration, so I pulled out my trusty cording foot and zigzagged over thick crochet thread instead.  Still annoying and time consuming, but not nearly so frustrating.  And I have also ordered a ruffler foot, so we'll see how that works out for future iterations.

Also, the yardage requirements assume single layer ruffle at the bottom, but the instructions give the option for a double-layer ruffle (to avoid hemming 7.5+ yards of ruffle!).  Do yourself a favor and buy a little extra yardage to do the double-layer.  You're welcome in advance.

All told, I do like the results.  This is not something I would have ever come up with otherwise, but then I'm the mom of boys.  I definitely see more of these in my future, but I'm going to play with the ruffler foot when it arrives.  That gathering was for the birds!