Tiered Skirt Tutorial

A few months ago, I mentioned the three-tiered skirt that I made for my daughter for her birthday and was asked by several people for a tutorial. Due to illness, I haven't gotten around to it until now.

This is an easy, fast skirt to make. It can easily be tweaked, even by a beginning seamstress to have a greater or fewer number of tiers, different sizes (making matching skirts for dolls is *so* easy and will get you in good with your kids), and this patterns is not picky about what texture and style of fabric you use.

I got this pattern from my cousin, written on a refrigerator notepad, it's that easy. Here are the steps:

1. Find the desired length of the skirt. Measure from the waist to either the knees, calf, ankles ... wherever you want the skirt hem to be.

2. Divide the desired length by the number of panels you want and add one inch. For example, if you want three tiers, divide the length by 3 and add 1. This will be the height of each tier.

3. Measure your child's waist. (The skirt in this picture is an above-knee two-tiered skirt.)


4. The tier lengths should be cut as follows:
1st tier: Waist measurement plus 13 inches.
2nd tier: 1st tier times 2.
3rd tier: 2nd tier times 2.
etc, etc for any additional tiers.

5. Sew together pieces of each tier so that each tier is one long piece. You will now have three pieces of fabric (for a three-tiered skirt).

6. For the first tier, fold down the top 1 1/4 inch and fold that under 1/4 inch and sew. This gives you a 1 inch casing for elastic.

7. For the bottom tier, sew a 1/4 inch double-fold hem.

8. Now it's time to gather. Sew a gathering stitch along the entire top of your second tier. If you haven't sewn a gathering stitch before, it's very easy. Change your stitch length on your machine to the longest available length. Before you start stitching, pull both the lower and upper threads out about four or five inches - you will need these for gathering. Sew 1/4 inch from the edge of your fabric. When you get to the end, pull the threads out at least four to five inches again before you cut them.

When I make these skirts, there are several places in each tier where I've sewn the fabric together to get the desired length. For ease of gathering, I stop sewing right before the seam, pull the thread long, cut, pull the threads on the machine long and start over right after the seam (as in the picture below). This makes it so that I don't have to gather over the seam. Maybe not professional, but much easier.

9. Sew gathering stitch on remaining lower tiers.

10. Gather up gathering stitches on each tier. To do this, gently pull one thread while helping the fabric along that thread. It will get quite crowded as in the picture below.

11. Now you're going to match these tiers up. Pin the top of the second tier to the bottom of the first tier, loosening your gather as needed to make the two lengths match up and taking care to keep the gathers even. You will need a lot of pins along this edge to keep the gathers where you want them. You can see in the picture below how much you'll loosen the gather to make the two tier lengths match.

12. Sew a 1/2 inch seam, being careful to keep your gathering seam on the inside. Because my girls wear their skirts all of the time and play hard in them, I sew another seam 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch inside this seam. But that's just me.

13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 for all of your tiers.

Your skirt should now look like this:

(For those of you with eagle eyes, yeah, the hem on this one isn't done yet - this skirt is for Hannah and I always hem last on her skirts since she changes her mind frequently about the desired length.)

14. Cut a length of 1 inch wide elastic (non-roll is best) the length of the child's waist plus one inch. (20 inch waist would make a 21 inch long piece of elastic) Thread this elastic through the elastic casing on the top tier, securing it at each end.

15. Pin the long edges of your skirt together, from the top to the hem. Sew a 1/2 inch seam all the way down, stitching several times over the elastic waist to secure it.

Now your skirt's done! I go a step further and iron the side hem open. Not necessary, but nice.


Here are a few other tiered skirts -

My cousin's daughter designed and made this one while she was with us.

Ainsley's birthday skirt with matching doll skirt.

Hannah in a skirt that was a gift from a cousin. It's a good skirt to wear over pants when she's playing outside. Just try to separate my girls from their skirts.


So there you have it! I hope it was a clear tutorial. Have fun! Let me know if you make any skirts - I'd love to see pictures!

Right This Minute.

Cleaning the toy room.

While you may never do it alone,

and the help may be well-meaning,

you still end up doing most of the cleaning yourself.

Your help is too easily distracted by the great toys that are uncovered in the process.

'Tis the life of a mother of young kids.

Guest Post - Visiting a craft fair.

Editor's note: This is the second guest post I've had on my blog. The first one is here. I can't believe it's been two years! We went to a craft fair this morning and Hannah wanted to take some pictures herself 'so that I can write a blog.' Then she told me what to write for each picture. Enjoy!

My mom gave us some money when we went to a craft fair today. It was kind of fun. I got some earrings. One of them was for my sister, but they were too pretty, so I kept them. She got a doll crib that she loved.

I took this picture because I thought the white purse was pretty. I bought two purses. They were almost a dollar each. They had a tiny chocolate bar in them. I got them because I thought they were the right size for my Nettie doll but they weren't. They were the right size for her hair, though, so I made her a hairdo with two purses. I should have gotten a picture of that.


These socks were there too. I tried to get a picture of the rainbow colored ones, but the camera must have deleted it. Those were my favorite. I wanted to get them for Aunt Ria's baby, but I didn't have enough money.

The sun must have been in the candy dish for it to look so blurry. This candy was at a jewelry table. I wanted some jewelry, but the candy was free, so I got a piece of candy instead. It wasn't very good.

These are pictures of a dollhouse that was there. I really liked it a LOT but my mom said it was too expensive. (Editor's note: It was $595. Just sayin'.) I like the tiny door and the window in this picture.


This picture is too dark, but I like being able to see that old man in the window. It makes me think that I caught a glimpse of an old snowman walking by.

The wallpaper in this house was good. We only have white walls in our house. I want pink walls in my room. And a pink ceiling. And a pink floor. So this picture is to show my dad what I want in my room.


The lady had fake snow surrounding the house. You can see it in this picture. It was pretty cool.

The windows were so pretty. the brown roof is pretty too. The lady should have put snow on it.

This would be my bedroom if I lived here. Then I could come out the window and walk on the roof.


Isn't the snowman's hat funny? And his tiny eyes make me laugh. He looks like he's squinting.

The plants hanging on the porch were really pretty, but they don't make much sense. She has snow on the ground, after all. Who has plants hanging outside in the winter? All of our plants here are dead. She should have bird feeders up.



This is a movie I took. The snowman is running around on the porch yelling at the little snow kids running around. I think they're throwing snowballs at him. I'm frustrated that you can't hear my voice. I was talking quietly because people were listening to me, but now you can't hear me.


This is a picture I took when we got home. It's too fuzzy, but it's cool if you squinch your eyes up a bit. I stood some of my horses on top of each other and they look like the Crazy Bremen Town Musician Horses. I have more horses but they kept falling over, so I just got this one.

Now I'm going to read Calvin and Hobbes with my mom. My Aunt Ria let us borrow her Humblecidal Cycle Jungle Cat (Editor's Note: That'd be Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat) book. She has thirty-eleven Calvin and Hobbes books and they make me laugh SO hard.

Tiny changes.

I always thought it would be the big, noticeable things with my kids that would mark the time passing for me. You know, birthdays, lost teeth, school starting.

It certainly is the big things that make me notice the time passing with my friends and family. She lost her tooth? Can you believe you have a seven year old? She's old enough to be in school already?

But with my children, the big things haven't fazed me yet. It's the little things that make me pause, startle, and sometimes tear up a little bit.

Like the moment a few months ago when I took Hannah to get some new shoes. There was a small selection and the only choices she had in the kind of shoe we were going for (fancy shoes) were sparkly Disney labeled shoes or sweet, grown-up ballet shoes. Now I really dislike branded clothing, but for half a second I caught myself hoping that she'd pick the glittery shoes and stay so young just a bit longer. She chose the ballet shoes. I was very happy about it, once the decision was made, but for me it marked the ending of a period in her life.

And there was the moment a few weeks ago when I realized that my three year old was running to the bathroom with her pants pulled up. Not something *you'd* notice if you were visiting, but for me, it was a big deal. See, I've been trying to convince her for six months that when she realizes that she needs to go to the bathroom so bad, it would be more efficient to run to the bathroom and *then* pull down her pants instead of immediately pulling them down to her ankles and running to the bathroom (at full speed, no less) like that.

Oh, and the moment yesterday when I was chasing my 18 month old around the house, tickling him and he was giggling that hysterical happy-baby-giggle so hard and I startled a big boy laugh out of him. He didn't understand why I stopped chasing him and it took me a second to understand it myself.

Changes that are small are the sweetest and most telling.

Sometimes they're not so sweet, though. I turned 32 this year and didn't even notice. Age is just a number and all that. I'm enjoying my thirties more than any other stage in my life. And then yesterday a kinda hot guy in his early twenties almost ran into me in the store. He said "Excuse me, ma'am." Did you get that? He said "Excuse me, ma'am." I think that at this point I should call him 'a nice young man' instead of 'a kinda hot guy.' *sigh*

It's the little things.

Advent Obsession.

I adore advent calendars, so when I saw this little beauty at a thrift store, I grabbed it.

We had to fix it up a bit - paint a few little wooden balls and glue them on.

It was hard to part with, but it was purchased with another home in mind. We have my brother's name for our present exchange this year, so the girl's and I filled it up and sent it on its way.

We printed out a list of about eighteen fun Christmas activities, cut them into squares and stuffed them in different days.

We didn't do all 24 days because my brother's family is Christian, so we figured they'd want to add some of their own activities in. We added some fun stuff like candy canes and hot chocolate mix and popcorn to help them with activities we'd suggested.

We made and wrapped the easiest and cutest little ornaments.

The pattern says to use stiff felt. Since we didn't have any, we used foam sheets.

One foam sheet made about five little ornaments, so don't be surprised if you're one of Hannah's 'best friends in the world' and get an ornament in the mail. *cough*Ashley*cough*

And so the season begins.

Felt Car Playmat to take along.

I'm not an original crafter. I'm no good at thinking up new and ingenious crafts that will take your breath away. I'm good at looking at ingenious crafts and getting my breath taken away, and I'm good at taking crafts I see and tweaking them to fit my style and needs. That's how this one was born.

This was born from two different crafts I saw online - a tiny fabric tic-tac-toe board to carry in your purse and a monstrously huge construction toy playmat.

This one is about 12 inches around - I used the largest mixing bowl I had to draw the circle on some white felt. Then I added some felt and embellished it.

Apple tree field.

Corn field. (Not a field of lily pads like my husband thought. Where on earth would you find a field of lily pads?)


A pond with cattails, boat, and waves. No lily pads.

Sheep in a field. Went a bit french knot crazy here. Also, they're not really clear - my husband thought they were bushes. Also, my sister couldn't tell what they were - she didn't even get bushes from it, she didn't have any idea *what* they were.

Motorcycle track. A road was taken out here and this substituted at my husband's request.

Ainsley's favorite thing is the flower filled turnaround in the center, Hannah's favorite part is the apple trees. Gray likes running over the sheep.

Then I backed it with some fabric from my stash, finished the edges with bias tape and bias tape loops and threaded a bias tape drawstring through it.

If I had had the tools, I may have finished the edges with bias tape and then put grommets in and threaded a drawstring through those.

All finished with 3 little cars from our toy box.

Ready to throw in the purse.

Perfect for any place - like gymnastics class - where you need some longer distractions.

Do you want your own library?

This site will not be good for you. And their fiction books (except for their kid's fiction books - Boo.) are 50% off for the next few days.

It's a site that sells books at closeout prices - sometimes, if you hit a good sale, for pennies. The problem hits when shipping is added. If you've spent $100 (don't judge) on books and gotten 61 books for that amount of money, you're feeling pretty smart - until shipping for those 61 heavy books hits. *gulp* (still, $133 for 61 books isn't bad - especially when they're quality books)

So, here's the point of this post. BookCloseouts.com is having a Free Shipping Sale. From now until the end of December, you get free shipping if you live in the US (including Hawaii and Alaska) or Canada.

Catch-up - one for the archives.

Crafts we've done that I want to save. This one's for the archives, so feel free to skip over.

Pop bottle butterflies (and dragons). Found here via Mountain Pulse.

Not great for littles. We did this when my cousin's kids were here and they had a lot of fun, so I'd say it's good for seven years old on up.



I'm definitely saving this one for when they're older.




Classic pasta pictures.

Cleaned out the pantry and found pasta I haven't used for years. I was more comfortable having the girls do art with it then testing it in the kitchen. So lucky we have enough money to make that decision.

Ains got frustrated fast and just told me where she wanted me to put the glue and she dumped the pasta.







Magazine Christmas Trees

Hannah picked the livestock equipment magazine over the hunting magazine because "Hunting's not my style, Mother. What kind of a girl do you think I am?"


Hannah's went to Daddy's work, Ains' is in their room.