The “Twirly Skirt”

I realized recently that I was really having an itch to do something creative… something other than being in my kitchen.  Sewing is something that I don’t consider myself very good at but I really enjoy it and I haven’t done much of it lately.  In fact, other than two baby blankets and baby towels for my sisters last year and a couple of Christmas mice for our cat family I haven’t done any sewing in two years.  Kaitlyn’s “big bed” quilt is still waiting for me to finish it from two years ago even.  You may blame this on the birth of my fifth child but that wouldn’t be entirely the reason actually.  Something else occurred to upset the entire household when that baby was only two weeks old and I’m still recovering from it unbelievably.  If you know us well then you know what happened over here and if you don’t then it’s best forgotten and put behind us anyway.  It’s not something we care to think a whole lot about… and yet we do still.  Anyway, over the past few weeks I’ve been getting my crafting area cleaned up once again and reorganized knowing how much I’ve missed having the space, time and organization to craft and how much my four year old would love to craft as well.  Yesterday came my opportunity.  My craft area of the basement was at least functional again and my daughter Lindsay informed me that she needed a “twirly” skirt within the day for her musical rehearsals at school.  It “had to be twirly” and it had to come about mid-calf.  Searching the costume box in the attic turned up nothing.  A glance through the closet of two girls also revealed nothing that fit this description.  So I turned to a set of instructions that I found on www.theprudenthomemaker.com under Heirloom Sewing.  (I really love this web site… so many inspiring things including her story).  If you then click on “sewing for less” you can scroll down and get sewing ideas for all sorts of things, including little girls.  I have a bigger girl and since there is no pattern at all I just did the math to make this for a bigger girl and it turned out super cute.  Kaitlyn wants one too.

Behold “The Twirly Skirt”!  I made this skirt out of not quite a yard of the horse fabric and a half yard of the brown dotted fabric.  Both pieces I had in my “stash” were remnants that I bought at JoAnnes liquidation for 75% off and it was JUST enough.  I’m sure I bought them thinking they would end up in a quilt or a tote bag or something but there is not a single scrap from this project.  This is a straight line project and Lindsay needed it all for the length.  And since it is straight lines I figured that when she is done with rehearsals I would just snip the stitches out and fold the pieces back up for later use.  It is fun, easy and took just a few hours.  It would go faster the second time around and if I hadn’t had to use the little scrap I did have left to lengthen the dotted hem once she tried it on when I discovered it was NOT mid-calf as directed for the musical rehearsals.  I also stuck some lace along the bottom of the skirt to try and give it the effect of being a little bit longer.  I think that the measurements given on the instructions make the skirt a little on the short side if you are wanting a modest length skirt, especially for an older girl.  I had already lengthened the main skirt with the horse pattern on my own so definitely add some length if you make this project.  I also made the length of the tie and bow longer at the waist, figuring I could trim it if I wanted it shorter.  This project was fun and I really enjoyed being creative again.  My time really flew.  Kaitlyn enjoyed the time as well, sitting across from me at the table stringing beads and doing as many math equations as she could think of with with the counters she was playing with.

Lindsay was thrilled with the outcome.  I’m not sure she’s going to give it back to me or that I’ll be snipping any stitches out of it.  Of course this girl loves horses so it’s a fun skirt for her.  I think it’s really cute on her and I love the skirt with her cowgirl boots.  I was really lucky to have exactly the right yardage of this fabric that turns out to go so well together for this project.  Lindsay liked this skirt so much that she decided to wear it as her outfit to school today too.  Usually she’s a jeans and t-shirt girl as much as I will let her be.

And this picture is taken at Lindsay’s request as she “ponders pinecones” for the benefit of realizing that Lindsay does in fact have hair.  The pictures above don’t show that fact very well.  Happy stage twirling… Brigadoon opens the first weekend in November.