So far, we’re having an exceptionally good summer. And, with summer weather comes the need for summer clothes. My youngest daughter only had one summer skirt, not nearly enough. The skirt that she had is simple, a front and back piece from knit fabric and an elastic waistband. I thought it looked like the skirt pieces were just rectangles with the top gathered into the elastic to create an A-line shape. I figured I could replicate it to make some easy summer skirts.
The beauty of children’s clothes is that you only need a little bit of fabric so it’s great for using up remnants left over from other projects. For this first skirt I used the same stripey fabric as for a dress that I made for my oldest daughter last year. For the waistband I used a 2 cm wide elastic that I covered in some ribbing. I had to stretch the elastic quite a bit to gather in the top of the skirt. With hindsight I think the panels of the original skirt were probably already somewhat A-line shaped instead of rectangular.
The next day I was wearing a dress I made many years ago, before I started blogging, and my oldest daughter admired the fabric. I still had some of that fabric left and I asked my daughter if she’d like a skirt from the same fabric. So, I made one. I drew an A-line shape to use as a pattern piece. The fabric was a bit flimsy on its own so I underlined it with another thin knit fabric to give it a bit more body. For the waistband I stitched a soft 4 cm wide elastic in a loop and attached it to the top of the skirt with my overlocker. This speeded up the construction quite a bit compared to first covering the elastic in fabric.
This skirt turned out very nice, and I found another remnant with a fun triangle print that fit the pattern piece that I made for my oldest daughter and I quickly made another skirt.
But then my youngest daughter still only had one new skirt and I had the hang of making them so I drew a smaller A-line pattern piece for her. The glitter popsicle remnant from the sun cover I made for my cargo bike was a perfect fit and within 40 minutes I had another skirt. She loves blue and glitter so this skirt was an immediate hit.
Overall, in less than 6 hours I made 4 easy summer skirts and ended up with 2 happy children. Not a bad score. Let’s hope the weather stays nice enough to wear them several more times this summer and then maybe they’ll still fit next year.
I’ve made several skirts like this from scraps. Such a great way to use up smaller prieces of knit fabric.
Yes! And so satisfying to only use my stash.
Look at those fabrics! Those are wonderful and fun skirts!
Yes, so happy I found a good use for those remnants.
No reason why they can’t wear them later in the year with warm tights or leggings underneath! Assuming of course that they don’t grow out of them too fast… I LOVE that blue and white print!
Yes, they may also wear them later, we’ll see! They don’t grow that quickly anymore. That print is one of my favourites.