Tutorial: Ruffle Skirt for American Girl or other 18″ dolls
- At September 09, 2013
- By Kelly
- In Tutorials and Sew Alongs
- 6
Hello!
Here’s a tutorial for you today! I had a little bit of ruffle fabric leftover from Zoe’s skirt. I’ve been trying to slowly build up some doll clothes for her birthday this fall. Shhhhhhhh! Don’t tell!
Now that the kids are back in school, it’s much easier to borrow one of Zoe’s dolls. Julie was nice enough to get up from nap to help me out.
This is an easy skirt! You will need:
one piece of cotton/lycra knit 10″ x 1.5″ for the waistband – it should stretch the long way!
one piece of ruffle fabric, about 16″ x 7″ for a below the knee skirt (shown at the top of this post) or 16″ x 4.5″ for knee length, as shown at the bottom of this post
(this might depend on your fabric, but in my case, it meant either 6 or 4 rows of ruffles)
Wonder Tape and your preferred notions for cutting and sewing
Cut your waistband to 10″ x 1.5″
Fold waistband right sides together so it is 5″x1.5″ when folded. Stitch ends together.
Fold waistband wrong sides together the short way and mark the quarter points. I just pin them, you could also use your marking pen.
Once you have cut your ruffle fabric, use your Wonder Tape to help line up the rows of ruffles. Carefully place it on one side.
Make sure the ruffles on the opposite side are lined up with the edge.
Then carefully pull the paper off the Wonder Tape. Pick up the side of the fabric with the Wonder Tape on it. Holding it taut, match it to the other side, right sides together. After it is nice and stuck together, flip it over to check that everything is smooth on both sides. Peek inside the fabric tube to make sure all the ruffles stayed the way they were supposed to.
Now that it’s nice and stuck together, sew the seam.
Leave the ruffle fabric right sides together for now. Find the quarter points on the top of the ruffle fabric tube you’ve just created.
Match up the quarter points on the waistband to the quarter points on the skirt and pin.
Sew the skirt and waistband together, stretching the waistband to fit the skirt.
Ta-da!
That’s it! Julie looks excited about it, doesn’t she? Hopefully Julie can keep a secret. We have to put this away until Zoe’s birthday.
Happy Sewing!
Kelly