15 Minute Twirly Skirt

My big girl loves to wear twirly skirts, especially in the several hours a day that she asks for music so she can dance. When I came upon this post on Pinterest I knew that not only would it look super cute on Turbo, but I could make up several in different patterns very quickly to satisfy all of her twirling needs. 

What you'll need:

• stretchy material like jersey
• scissors or rotary cutter
• elastic
• sewing machine and thread
• pins

To start off, I needed to decide the length of skirt that I wanted. I wanted her to be able to move freely in it even on the playground and when crawling on the ground, so I measured a skirt that I know works on her and decided to make the points 8 inches long. Since this is a double layer skirt, I don't have to worry about the straight edges being shorter on her, as the second layer covers the short section with more points.

1) Cut two squares of material. Mine are 16 inch squares of reversible jersey.

 

2) Line up your fabrics and cut out a hole in the middle for the waist. The original tutorial I found had you placing an object like a bowl in the middle and cutting around it to get the right size. I prefer to take the waist measurement as circumference and solve for the radius, (r = c/2Pi), but you don't have to be as nerdy as me. Use what works for you. If you chose my option, line up your squares and fold them in half one way and then again the other so that you have a small square (mine is 8x8 at this point). In the corner of your square with all of your folds, measure out your radius and draw/cut your arc. When you unfold the fabric you'll have your circle for the waist

3) Now you'll need your elastic. Turbo's waist is 20 inches, so I cut 20 inches of elastic and zig-zag the ends overlapped by about an inch. This gives a 19 inch waist band so that it will stretch and stay on her. Turn your top square 1/8th turn so that it looks like mine above, and then fold it in half. 

Place pins on your elastic band at the sides and the exact middle in the front and back.  Then do the same for the top edge of the skirt.

 

4) Place another pin in between each of the pins you've already placed. This divides your skirt and elastic in to 1/8ths and will make it easier to line up when you're sewing.

5) Attach your waistband to your skirt. Line up the pins on your skirt with the pin in the waist band to make sure you're keeping everything even. You may need to stretch the elastic a little to keep things lined up.

6) Twirl and dance