Creative articles about sewing

How to make an exposed elastic tulle skirt

tulle skirt_4

Most little girls love a tutu. I don’t like to stereotype my daughter through her clothes, but I couldn’t deny her of a tulle skirt if that’s what she wanted. When I told her I was finally going to make her one, her eyes lit up, she was so excited.

tulle skirt_1

I found some soft pink tulle at a local fabric shop, only £1 per m, it was destined to come home with me. The lining (a light weight cotton), I already had in my stash. And a strip of 20mm wide elastic (I would have used wider if I had some).

tulle skirt_fold

Using the circle skirt from the Spin Dress pattern, I folded the tulle vertical and horizontal so that I had a fold along both sides because I didn’t want a seam in the skirt.

tulle skirt_2

I cut 2 x size 6 length with a size 10 waist, since I wanted some gathering at the waist.

french seam

For the lining I used a rectangle of fabric approx. 110m wide and slightly shorter than the circle skirt length. I joined the two short ends with a neat French seam.

5mm fold

I made a 5mm fold onto the right side of the the lining fabric, all the way round the top/waist. This is so it has a neat edge, rather than a raw edge on the inside of the elastic waistband.

gathered lining

Next I gathered the lining so that the waist was the same width of waist of the tulle circles.

baste layers

I pinned and basted them all together so that the the two layers of tulle were held in place on top of the lining fabric.

elastic loop

I cut a piece of elastic to the size as my daughter’s waist (no bigger) and joined it together to make a loop.

elastic over tulle

I divided the skirt and the elastic into 4 equal parts and pinned the elastic to the skirt at each quarter. The elastic goes over the top of the skirt, just overlapping the 5mm fold that I made earlier.

The elastic loop is smaller than the skirt waist, this is so that the skirt can be gathered into the elastic.

zigzag 2

zig zag together
Then using zig zag stitch No.2 on my Bernina 350, I joined the elastic to the skirt, pulling on the elastic making it the same width as the skirt waist, one quarter at a time.

hem

Finally I hemmed the lining but left the tulle hem raw.

tulle skirt_hanging

And this is the beautiful result.

tulle skirt_3

My daughter was thrilled.

Free sewing instructions: Tulle skirt

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