My Sewing Journey, Part III - A Simple Rectangle Skirt

My next project was to make a "Circle Skirt" for my daughter.  If you've never heard of the term, it's basically exactly what you'd expect.  You cut a piece of fabric into a circle (really more of a donut shape) and then turn it into a skirt.  It's a nice project because it can be done entirely with measurements and doesn't require a pattern.

However, after going through several circle skirt tutorials online, I determined that it just wasn't the right approach for this project, for a few reasons.  First of all, it requires that you have fabric as long and as wide as the double the length of the skirt you want to make.  I was using a half-yard of fabric I had on hand that would have come-up short.  Second, every tutorial I found involved knit (stretchy) fabric, which will hang and drape differently after the skirt is made (and continues to change a bit overnight).  I was using basic cotton fabric that would have behaved differently.  And third, I really wanted something dead-simple that could have an elastic waist.

Enter the rectangle skirt.  This skirt is made very simply from a long rectangle.  You sew the short ends together, hem the bottom, build a channel for elastic, install the elastic, and you're done.  And it's perfect for a little girl.



You'll notice a bit of contrasting pink fabric in the waistband.  This is because I miscalculated ow much I'd need for the waist and the first attempt was too short.  So I took-out the waist and added some fabric.

You'll also notice that I tried out one of my machine's decorative stitches on the bottom hem.  I'm pleased with how it turned-out.




 This is more or less the method I used: