Skirt Finishing Tutorial

The finished products!  To make the scrunchie, use a 8-12 inch bit of fabric about 4 inches wide.  Fold together so that the pretty sides are touching each other and the not-beautiful side is what you see as you sew.  Sew together.    It should look like a long bookmark.  Turn right side out (use a closed pen to push fabric through if necessary), thread about 5 in. of elastic through (use a safety pin so you can "find" the elastic inside as you're threading it).  Then tie the elastics together tightly and sew your scrunchie ends together so that the elastic doesn't show.   If you measure your fabric and elastic (I never do), you will have a more "standard" product.



Skirt Step One:  The cloth is laid on my vinyl floor.  I count two and a half squares over and cut... meaning that my cloth strips are approximately seven inches wide but that my measurements are very rough.  It doesn't have to be exact with ruffles!  Part of the prettiness is the uneven rumpled look.  Next I lay several pieces, right (pretty) sides together and sew them end-to-end so that I have a long, long strip.



Step Two:  finish the bottom of the ruffle. Otherwise, your cloth will fray.  Fold in about a centimeter, then fold in again so that none of the fray-able ends show.  Sew about in the middle, but closer to where your folds will meet the "wrong" end of the fabric so that the ends are held together nicely.  This will keep the bottom of your skirt from fraying.  By the way, if you're using fleece instead of cotton, you can skip this step entirely!

Step Three:  Sew to denim skirt.  I use the hemline on the denim skirt as a natural place to align my other fabric.  About every three inches I fold the fabric over about an inch.  For more fluffy ruffles, use more folds.  As you round about the end where you began, you'll want to leave a gap and sew the two ends of your pretty fabric together, leaving a little extra space to sew to the skirt as the final ruffle.  Enjoy!  PS.  Do you have a BOY you need to sew for?  Try my tutorial on lengthening shorts/converting hole-y jeans into shorts!