"Murphy's" Layered Skirt!

Hooray!

The long-awaited Layer Skirt.

This time with a t-shirt waistband, and in bright, springy colors!

Based off this skirt I made for a reader in this post:

I think the ideal fabric for a skirt like this would be a light-weight jersey, or other no-fray fabric. The hemming is the longest part of this project! On the other hand, the pretty spring prints(Thanks, Kathleen!) just might be worth it.

So here we go!

*The measurements given in this tutorial are for a just-below-the-knee length skirt, so feel free to adjust for your own preferences!

1) To start, make a t-shirt waistband by cutting about 6" off the bottom of a t-shirt, and wrapping it around yourself, pulling it nice and snug, and marking with pins.

2) With right sides facing, sew a line across the waistband where you've marked with pins. Then trim the excess. Set your waistband aside....
3) And cut a length of stretchy knit fabric for your underskirt. It should be 1.5x your hip measurement, and your desired length. (Mine was 23" long) Sew the sides together, and sew a gathering stitch (straight stitch on longest length) around the top.

4) Cut 5 strips of fabric, 5.5" wide. The first strip should be 1.5x your hip measurement in length, and the other four about 2 times your hip measurement.

5) Fold over each side of your strips about 1/4" and press(optional). Sew a gathering stitch on one of the sides and hem the other, them sew the short sides together to make a circle. Repeat for all your strips.
6) Gather your underskirt and first strip to the same size as your waistband.

7) Set the gathered strip inside the underskirt so that the tops meet. The wrong side of the strip should be facing the right side of your underskirt.
8) Pin the bottom of the waistband to the skirt and strip. The wrong side of the waistband should be facing the wrong side of the underskirt. (It's important to pin well, so take your time!)

9) Turn the whole skirt right side out, and fold the top of the waistband down so that the right side is facing outward.
10) Sew the waistband on with a zig-zag stitch, removing the pins underneath as you go. Try to match your stitches with the shirt hem stitches that are already there.
11) Mark a line with a sewing pen 3.5" down from the bottom of the first ruffle hem. (This picture shows 4"-it's lying!) :o)

12) Use your line to guide you when sewing on your next row of ruffles (also using a zig-zag stitch), and repeat until all your ruffles are sewn on! After your ruffles are all on, you may pull out the gathering stitches. (Or just do it the lazy way like I do: stretch it gently until you hear the threads break! :o) The zig-zagged stitches won't break, only the straight ones will.)

All done! Admire those ruffly layers! :o)

I'm sorry it took a while to crank this tutorial out-it was a total Murphy's Law project! My first try was so bad, I had to totally scrap it, which I almost never do!

It's amazing how doing a tutorial for something makes it so much harder. :o) I hope you're able to use it, though! It's such a fun style!