[make] scrappy skirts

I found this scrappy skirt on Pinterest and my Halloween costume plans for the twins took a very sudden turn from girlie robot to rockin' cowgirl.  First I found the boots at Target.  Pink.  I was going for brown, but the girls  voted pink.  They always vote pink.

Now to raid my fabric bins.  Since the boots were a pretty rosy pink, might as well go shabby chic.

The cutting begins.  I really dislike measuring so I let the fabric do the work for me.  I folded the fabric in half, selvage sides meeting and started strips 1" to 2" wide.  I cut those in half at the fold.  So, if my math is correct, on 48" fabric, my pieces were approximately 24" long by 1" to 2" wide.  I angled each end and cut all the strips with pinking shears.

Step 1, basically cut a lot of strips.
Step 2, the elastic.  A length that fit around my little one's waist sewn together at the ends to form a circlular waist band.

Steps 3 and 4, tying the strips on.  Just like with other tutu tutorials, I simply folded the strips in half and slid the two end over the elastic and through the loop made at the fold to secure them to the elastic.  Repeat and repeat and repeat.  I used five different fabrics and tried to scatter them randomly around the elastic band.

Step 5, tying the final fabric. I used was a very lightweight cotton.  These I tied in a simple knot, just like in the Ten Minute Tutu, to make the skirt a little fuller and to fill in the holes.

The twins love it and it has such a different look than the standard tulle tutu.  A couple of notes to keep in mind.

1) The heavier the weight of the fabric, the thicker the knot around the elastic is going to be.
2) The elastic is going to stretch a lot more while you are tieing the knots than with  tulle.  Apparently the cotton doesn't let the elastic slide through as easily which meant I had to add a fabric strip laced around the knots to tighten the skirt a bit and make sure it didn't fall off the twin's hips.
3) To give the skirt a little more length but not have to cut your fabric different you can just vary the lengths of your ends. In other words instead of folding the fabric in half and knotting it, you can fold it off centered and not only get some more length but make the skirt a little fuller with the varied lengths of your ends.

To complete the outfits, I added some suede roses that I picked up at the Dollar Store to a natural straw cowboy hat.  Then I cut out two 24" x 24" squares for the bandanas out of some of the leftover fabric from the skirts and two cowgirl costumes are done.

The cost?  $22 each for the pink boots at Target, $6 each for the hats also at Target, $2 for the suede roses and fabric that I had in my stores.  Since I figure the girls would have gotten a pair of boots this season anyway, I'm claiming that the girls' costumes only cost me $7 each.  Not too shabby, just shabby enough.

I'd love to see your versions if you give it a try and maybe you will even get a little help like I did. The little monster that happens to be in all my tutorial photos is my new "helper" according the the girls.  The twins help a lot with cutting and "sewing" my scraps but apparently the little monster is the scrappy skirt spokesperson.




Thanks to Sherry, Katie, Erin and Ana for hosting the fall edition!