The skirt that almost kills me

I love Dana over at MADE. She's amazing, has beautiful children - and somehow figures out how to come up with the most excellent ideas. Except for this one (TOTALLY joking - just frustrated with this skirt). We're still on the Made for Kids board.

I've made this particular skirt for a friend's daughter - but I have made them for a fundraiser in purple and as a Thanksgiving skirt in brown. They are absolutely breathtaking. The girls love them - and no matter where we go, we get compliments.

The instructions Dana gives for this skirt are very good. As you can see below, you need to tier the skirt according to a formula - and then add the fluff.

Adding the fluff is the hard part. Nylon chiffon is pretty easy to work with - but you need so much of it for this project. I buy it precut and then put two layers together. Then I gather. Dana does a great job of teaching you how to do this the cheater method. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do it on my machine - so I do it the old fashion way.

Once it's gathered, you have to then sew it on. I like the look of overlap, so you have to get close to the other layer.

I never have good luck with the final step - adding the elastic. The folding always gets bunched up. My guess is that my tension is too tight on my surger. Either way, the nice thing about this skirt is that I don't have to worry - it'll never show!

See how it twirls? It looks nice when they are just standing too!

I think Dana has this down as a beginner- intermediate project. Do not attempt as a beginner because you may give up sewing all together. Don't ask me to make it for you - this is my last one. My girls each have two and they are done.

Hints that I learned:

1. You have to know how to gather, how to put two uneven pieces of fabric together and make it work.

2. You have to understanding how your sewing machine works - and how to undo what your sewing machine just made you do. :)

3. If you have a taller child, make sure you take into account all the calculations. Do not make the tiers wider (to make the skirt longer) - just add another tier.

4. This skirt can take upwards of 6-8 hours. Do it over multiple days. Breaks up all the work.

5. Take your time. Rushing this (or waiting to the lsat minute) does not work.