20 Minute Bubble Skirt

I finally got a tutorial up!  

But before you look at the pictures and check out this super easy/fast bubble skirt, would you first take a minute and read this short post!  It would really help my husband out and we would really appreciate it!  Thanks.  

Ok...now you can look.  

I love this skirt for lots of reasons but the mostly because it took me less than 20 minutes to make once the fabric was cut and second, and it has a lot of bounce because it was made with a lot of light weight fabric.  It feels really springy to me.  I want to make another one in a more spring appropriate print.

Also, I love how the stripes look up here at the gathered section.

Want to make one?  Here we go...

Materials:

About 2 Yards of light weight fabric 

2 inch elastic for waistband

Coordinating thread

**I used a some kind of vintage silk that I've had from my grandpa's collection.

I apologize for lack of pictures-it was difficult to take pictures with all the fabric I used.  But trust me, it was so easy you won't even need them.

Construction:

1.  Measure around your waist and then decide how long you want the skirt to be.

2.  Cut the elastic to 1" larger than your waist measurement and then sew the ends together to create your waistband. I used the same method shown in the Ruffled Headband Tutorial.

3.  Cut the material into two rectangles that are your double your waist measurement by double your length measurement.  When sewn together it will be 4X's your waist measurement.  

HOWEVER, next time I make this skirt I will probably cut the width down to 1 1/2 the waist measurement (making it 3X my waist measurement when the two pieces are sewn together)because it was difficult to sew onto the waistband with sooo much fabric.  If you are using a cotton and not a lightweight silk, I would definitely recommend cutting down the width to at least 1 1/2 of your waist measurement or else you will get some funny looking bulging around your waistband.  

4.  With right sides together, sew the two rectangles together down each side (length).  You will end up with one very large tube of fabric.  Serge off raw edges and iron down seam.

5.  Open your skirt up and pull the bottom of the skirt up through the middle of the skirt so that the raw waistline edges line up together on top (your seams created in step 4 should be inside the fold and not visible).  In the following picture i'm separating the two layers so you can see the seams from step 4 are actually touching.

6.  Pin the two layers together and sew a gathering stitch all the way around the top of the skirt catching both layers.  I actually did this in sections so that I wouldn't have to re-gather the whole thing if a thread broke.  Next time I'm going to try the method Disney describes in her Easy Skirt Refashion to make a better "bubble" by offsetting the two layers a bit before pinning and gathering.  If you try it, tell me how it goes.

7.  Pull the bobbin threads and gather the two layers together until the entire skirt is about and inch larger than your hips (you want to be able to fit it on later....trust me).

8.  Serge off the raw edges.

9.  Pin to elastic waistband in 4-8 spots around the skirt.  I do this by folding the skirt in half and putting pins at each fold.  I do the same with the elastic, line up the pins and then pin the elastic to the fabric.  I then do the same thing folding in half the opposite way to get 4 pins around the band. 

10.  Sew the fabric to your elastic by stretching between pins as you sew to catch all the material.

And your done!

Please ignore the fact that I haven't showered or brushed my hair today...I'm about to take care of that now.

Oh, and did I mention that I would LOVE your help today by reading this short post and filling out the survey?  My husband and I would be forever indebted.   Thanks!

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