I call myself a beginner sew-er. I have sewn under a dozen things. Most of them being the straight lines of pillows or simple fat quarter skirts. I wanted to make my kids clothes for the 4th of July but decided not to do the traditional one fabric skirt. I picked out the fabric I liked at Joann's and decided to give a tiered skirt a try. As a beginner, this IS do-able, but it definitely takes time, attention to details and focus. 🙂 An intermediate/advanced sew-er could probably finish this in 20 minutes. 🙂 As a beginner, I have not done any sewing tutorials, so hopefully I can make this understandable. 🙂 I will do my best!
What you need for your Beginning Sewing Tiered Skirt:
Fabric about 1/2 yard each. You will have left over fabric.
Thread
Sewing Machine
1 inch Elastic
Safety Pin
Pins
Rotary Cutter or scissors
1. Cut four pieces of fabric in the following sizes:
7"x42" (top layer)
10"x42" (second layer)
13"x42" (third layer)
16"x42" (bottom layer)
2. Iron all pieces of fabric.
3. Hem the bottom of all pieces of fabric.
4. Line all four pieces on top of each other. Longest piece on the bottom, shortest on the top.
5. Sew the two sides of the fabric together through all the fabric.
6. Fold the top (make sure and get all four pieces of fabric) down 1 inch. Wrong sides will be touch and pin.
7. Sew along the bottom of fold so your elastic will fit through. Leave 1 inch unsewn.
8. Cut elastic 1 inch larger than your childs waist size. Mine was 20" for a 3 year old. Safety pin one side of the elastic and feed through skirt until it comes out the other side.
9. Sew elastic pieces together and let elastic go into the skirt.
10. Sew skirt closed and you are done!
Hi, my name is Melissa! I live in Spanish Fork, Utah. I'm happily married to Rob, and together we have five wonderful kids. Our family loves to embark on adventures, often in our RV, exploring the great outdoors. I'm an avid reader and a big fan of Hallmark movies – they always have a way of lifting my spirits. Hiking is another passion of mine; there's nothing like the tranquility of nature. I have a sweet tooth for chocolate and a love for Mexican food, both of which make life a little more delicious. In my downtime, I enjoy playing games with my family, creating memories and sharing laughter. Life is an adventure, and I'm here to enjoy every moment of it! I'm the blogger and creative mind behind the blog A Sparkle of Genius! Check out our posts on recipes, crafts, kid stuff, printables, travel and more!
Celia in Cleveland
Thursday 2nd of November 2023
Melissa, thank you so much! As an intermediate-to-experienced sewing person (we need a word for it -- seamster?), I was delighted to find these instructions. I have an old pattern for a ruffled swirl skirt similar to this, but the instructions called for gathering the layers and affixing them to a waistband. For obvious reasons, a fixed-waist skirt is not the best for a growing, wriggly toddler, and my granddaughter had objections. Loud ones. :)
This is perfect. I can indeed make a skirt in, if not 20 minutes, no more than 2 hours' work. Thank you so much for posting this and for keeping it simple. Other tutorials wanted each ruffle individually attached to a base skirt, or to stretch the elastic while attaching, etc. None of those things were solving the problem of how to sew multiple layers together with a flexible waist. Thank you so much!