Kaleidoscope skirt Tutorial * added to downloads *

[breylormom]

This is my first tutorial, so hope this all makes sense!

This skirt is a cross between a strip skirt and a circle skirt. I will try to explain how we came up with the measurements, so that you can adjust the size accordingly. The example here is for a size 7 skirt (what my dd is currently wearing). If you like this tutorial and make your own skirt, please donate $5 to the charity of your choice (Just a thought, why don't you donate to sewingmamas?? :-) )

What you will need (for size 7):
1 y heavier fabric (eg. Softer Cord used here) Refered to herein as fabric #1
1 y lighter cotton fabric (also think a lighter guaze material would be nice). Refered to herein as fabric #2.
If you want an underskirt or lining: 1 to 1.5 y of choice fabric
Elastic for waist (1” used here)
Ribbon detail (if desired)
Thread

Making your pattern:

This is the hard part. But basically measure waist size and base your measurements on 1.3 times waist measurement.

We had a waist (actually hip size as dd likes to wear things on her hips, not waist) size of 25”. Thus our measurements were based on a 32” strip.

FABRIC #1: These strips are rhomboids. To make your strips, divide this by the number of strips you want of fabric #1. We used 13 strips. Thus the width of the top of each strip was 2.5”. Adding ¼ inch on either side gave us 3 inches at the top of the strip. We added 1.5” to give us the width of the bottom strip. So, each strip of fabric #1 was 3 inches on the top and 4.5 inches on the bottom. Measure for your length (we used 14.5” ). We drew this all out on cardboard to make our template, then cut 13 pcs of fabric.

FABRIC #2: These strips are triangular. Since fabric #1 was to be side-by-side at the top, we only allowed for ½ inch at the top (¼ inch seam allowance on both sides). To complete a circle on the bottom, we used 5 inches on the bottom. Then we connected the top and bottom marks to make our triangle. We made our template out of cardboard, and cut 13 pcs of fabric.



I am really not sure how we came up with the bottom measurements. DH calculated this out to make 360 degrees. But in hind sight, and easier way to do this would be to cut out a circle to the length you need and run a tape measure all the way around the edge and divide by 26 (13 + 13). You will need the circle anyways to make your underskirt or lining. There are lots of tutorials on circle skirt calculations, we had a pre-existing pattern that we used.

[breylormom]

We didn’t have enough material for an underskirt, but I thought it would be super cute to add this on. Basically a circle skirt that is longer than your top skirt. I figured for us, 2.5 to 3 inches longer than the top skirt would have looked nice. Going to try this next time. (BTW, our template pcs above were lengthened to compensate for lack of underskirt. We lengthened it. It is all ready to go for us to try next time with an underskirt. Just wanted to explain that incase you were wondering why there seemed to be 2 sections of our template above.)

Your waistband would just be a rectangle cut of fabric #1. Our measurements were 9 inches (allowing 2 inches for casing and ½ inch seam allowance on bottom) by 32 inches (1.3 times the waist measurement as described above).

If you have gotten this far, you are well on your way!! Confused?? PM me and I will try to help you out.

Putting it all together:

We did French seams Then we ironed the lighter fabric (#2) toward the heavier fabric (#1) and double needle topstitched it down. Topstitching was always done on fabric #1. This way the lighter fabric will fall in slightly behind the heavier fabric to almost look like a peak through lininig/underskirt. We did this for ALL the strips alternating the 2 fabrics.





Once all the strips were joined, we had our circle skirt part. It was hemmed. We hemmed our circle skirt lining and basted it to the top skirt at the top.

We sewed a ribbon detail onto our waistband rectangle. The we folded our rectangle in ½ with right sides together and made the back seam ¼ inch, making sure to line up the ribbon.
We made the casing for our elastic by folding over at the top ½ inch then again 1”. Basically, this is just a really wide waistband to sit just below the butt cheeks. Standard casing. Nothing too fancy, really. Not sure if a Kori waistband would work here? Something to think about.

We pinned our waistband to our circle skirt (top skirt basted to underskirt) and used ½ inch seam allowance here. Finish the seam via your choice (serger, overstitching, or tight zigzag). We topstitched the seam to the upper portion of the waistband with a double needle.

Ta da! You are done. Putting it all together is basically like doing a strip skirt.



Hope this all makes sense. I took more pictures, but some of them were lost in uploading. If you have any questions, I would be happy to try to answer them.

[breylormom]

I am trying to edit this to make it better...but have to go get the girls ready for bed. Back later to work on it. In meantime, if there is anything I should add or if something doesn't make sense...just reply here. Thanks for looking!!

[flourishes]

Thanks for the great tutorial! That skirt looks beautiful!

[Isabel]

LOVE The skirt. Trying to comprehend the tutorial (But I'm really tired).

[HappyMrs.W]

The skirt is so pretty. theclap

[Upside]

Oh awesome, I'm going to try this soon!

[breylormom]

LOVE The skirt. Trying to comprehend the tutorial (But I'm really tired).

It seems confusing on paper, but once you get into it, it will hopefully make sense. If you really need to, you could always trace out a circle skirt and do your triangles and rhomboids right on that. It really helped to have DH work on the measurements with me.

[Misty589]

great job! that is really clear andi'm going to try it. love the spin on that skirt!
is this going in the downloads?

[breylormom]

great job! that is really clear andi'm going to try it. love the spin on that skirt!
is this going in the downloads?

I don't know how to do that, or even if I am allow to. But the mods can do this if they feel it is the right thing to do!

[RachelFlores]

That is a very pretty skirt! I love the way it twirls.

[Misty589]

has this been added to the tutorials? I can't find it there............jus t wondering

[diannab]

Thanks! I am going to give it a go next week!

[SewMeSane]

Love the look- Can't wait to try it!