Embroidered Animal Party Skirt

Today I’m taking part in my favorite series of any that I do – it’s Simple Simon and Co’s “Skirting the Issue“!

Skirting the Issue is held every July and it’s full of skirt tutorials and inspiration to sew up skirts for foster girls just in time for Back to School! It is so great seeing all the skirts everyone is making up for these sweet girls!

I’m sharing this sweet Embroidered Animal Party Skirt for the series this year. I just fell in love with this fabric and thought it was perfect for a skirt! It has these little animals all dressed up for a party so I added a little embroidery to it too!

It’s an easy elastic waist skirt – ready for the tutorial?

I used the size chart here to determine what size skirt I’d need for a four year old – since I don’t have one of those handy. :) So with a 21″ waist and a 12 1/2″ length it was easy to come up with.

The fabric I used is Hip Hooray from Blend Fabrics.

I cut out two panels that were 22″ x 14″ for the skirt.
For the waistband I cut out one piece 11″ x 2 1/2″ and one piece 20″ x 2 1/2″.
You’ll also need 11″ of 3/4″ elastic and embroidery thread and a piece of fusible fleece 11″ x 2 1/2″.

To embellish the skirt I outlined the balloons and party hats on the front panel of the skirt with back stitch. I used variegated thread that was close to the colors of the balloons and hats.

Once you have the panels embroidered sew the front and back of the skirt together. Sew a gathering stitch along the top edge of the skirt. Pull the threads up so the front panel is gathered to 11″ and the back panel to 20″.

Fuse the interfacing to the 11″ piece of the waistband. Sew the front and back waistband together at the short sides.

Pin the waistband to the skirt. Line up the two side seams and pull up the gathering threads if you need to. The right sides of the waistband and skirt should be facing each other. Sew the waistband to the skirt.

Sew a zigzag stitch along the top edge. Press the seam up towards the waistband. Fold the waistband in half so the zig zag edge overlaps the waistband seam just a bit. Press in place and pin the waistband down. On the right side of the waistband sew the back of the waistband down by sewing inside the ditch of the seam between the two side seams.

Cut an 11″ piece of elastic. Feed the elastic through the waistband until one end is just outside one of the side seams. Sew the elastic in place on one side by sewing inside the seam. Pull the elastic through until the other side is just outside the other side seam. Sew in place on that side too.

Sew the front of the waistband down by sewing in the ditch.

Hem the bottom edge of the skirt by turning up twice and sewing with a straight stitch. Now you’re all done!

So cute right?!

If you want to make up a skirt or a bunch of skirts you can link them up at Simple Simon and you can donate them locally, or you can check out the resource list that the Simple Simon girls have put together for us!

Here are some other skirt tutorials to check out if you need more inspiration!