the fairy-tale skirt tutorial

Monday, January 7, 2013


Sewing this skirt was easy and fun! Not to mention, the end result is just too dreamy. I don't know about you, but I have no problem feeling like I belong in a children's storybook for a day. It took me around an hour and a half to sew.

Materials:
1. Sewing Machine
2. Lining Material (I used about 2 yards, but it will depend on your measurements and how long you want the skirt, and then you will need a little extra to make a waist band)
3. Tulle (I used 6 yards)
4. Matching thread
5. Zipper (I used a 24 inch length, and trimmed it a couple inches)

The first step is making the solid part of your skirt, which can be done a couple different ways. You could either sew a gathered skirt and put in a zipper, or sew a circle skirt with a zipper. I wanted to try my hand at making my own circle skirt, so I did that for the base of my project. The cool thing about circle skirts is that there are so many different tutorials that teach you how to draft your own pattern using your own measurements. Here is one site that teaches you how to make adult and child circle skirts. Either way, sew a skirt, put in a zipper, and hem it before you start on the tulle.






For the layers of tulle, I used the Elizabeth Gathered-Waist dress from BurdaStyle. Remember how earlier I mentioned that instead of a circle skirt, you could just make a gathered skirt? If you have this pattern that it works perfectly! For the tulle, I increased the width of the pattern so that it had more of a poof to it. 

I really wanted my skirt to have layers of tulle, so to accomplish this I got 6 yards of tulle. I realized that cutting individual strips of fabric would be too much, so I used a different method. When you buy fabric at the store from the bolt, it comes already folded in half. I left my tulle folded in half, and cut it into two strips, each measuring 3 yards long. When sewing the stitch so that you can gather the fabric, I sewed it along the fold of the fabric. Remember, you want to gather your fabric to the same length of the waist measurement.

I do my gathering first before I sew the side-seam. To make things easy, I didn't sew the side-seam all the way up and I didn't try to attach it to the part where the zipper is. So essentially, the opening on the side-seam is the length of the zipper. When doing research on sewing tulle, most said to do a zig zag stitch. Or you could not sew a side seam at all, since it kind of blends together.

Before attaching them to the skirt, feel free to pin! Here is what mine looked liked pinned.


After you have individually gathered the two strips, attach them to the skirt. It may look a little messy, but that's okay because we will be sewing a waist band over the top.

I suppose you could do this with a contrasting material, or buy some bias tape as long as the width is the right amount. For those who don't know what bias tape is, click here! The link also explains how I folded the fabric for the waist band. I cut a strip that was about two inches longer than the measurement of my waist (so that you can tuck in the edges neatly), and few inches wide. Then you want to fold it like bias tape.

Looking a little messy? (like the photo below) Iron that sucker, and then you are ready to go! It might take a couple times to get the waist band to go flat but it will eventually.

Wow, that was a long tutorial! Please feel free to ask if you need me to elaborate on something.

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17 comments

  1. Wow this is SO AMAZING can't believe it's that easy! Although knowing me I'll find a way to make it complicated, haha...

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  2. OMG that was so easy! Thanks so much for the tutorial, I've tried to make a tulle skirt before and it was such a disaster... but this is preeeeetty!

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  3. Oh God, I need it! But I'm so awful with this kind of things, let's see what's the upcoming.

    <3
    http://zazzish.blogspot.pt/

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  4. That is so grovvey , but how much money would you say you spent on materials ? xx

    chloesodyssey12.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't remember exactly how much, but it wasn't very much. Less than or around $20?

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  5. We are a tulle distributor and are compiling a collection of links for customers with ideas and instructions on how to use the fabric.. We'd love to link your tutorial! Let us know if you'd prefer we don't :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! You are more than welcome to! Please email me a link after you do!
      hiimjade@gmail.com

      Delete
  6. Excellent article on making a perfect skirt, using Tulle. It is so simple. I really love it.
    Will share this page to all my friends.

    Thank you.

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  7. great article.love it and will share more and more..

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  8. Oh! it's not difficult..will try definitely..

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  9. Ahaa.......... I ll definitely try dis...awesome...luv it !!!

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  10. So amazing!! Can't wait to try this.

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12.  I read your tutorial but I have a question.if the circle skirt has on the zip for you to get it....and then u add the tulle over it, the tulle doesn't have any opening.so how do u get into the skirt if the tulle part isn't opened. Hope I make sense.

    ReplyDelete

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