Twirly Skirt Tutorial

I know this is my hair blog, but I ran into a follower and one of my girls was wearing one of these skirts with a cute white sweater and a coordinating headband. She asked if I would share. Here you go!

Threeish years ago, we had to have outfits for a Pioneer parade and I had NOTHING for my girls to wear, so the night before I grabbed some calico I had sitting around and made your basic, gathered floor length skirt for each one of my girls and a basic white apron. It worked for the time and through some tweaking, it has evolved into a fun skirt my girls love to wear. We go to the fabric store and I hear "I would love THIS for a skirt, Mom!!!" Since I am a sucker for fun things for my kids to wear, I happily oblige.

And as a disclosure, I don't like sewing with patterns and I have no idea what I am doing at all. I just get an idea in my head and I start cutting and sewing. I couldn't tell you what a bias is to save my life. Don't judge, mmmkthx.



First I head to my favorite fabric store...side note, I just found the BEST fabric store by where we are currently living. They sell Moda AND Amy Butler! If they carried Heather Bailey, my life would be complete! Okay, back to the tut. I buy a yard of my base fabric, and then 12 inches of a coordinating fabric. Then I measure it on my girl. Usually it ends up being half a yard that I use. For the smaller kids I shorten that. Hence the problem of not using a pattern. Also make sure that you add on about 3 inches for the casing.

I then cut two lengths of fabric for the main body of the skirt from selvage to selvage.

And I repeat with the coordinating fabric. I cut it six inches.

Fold the coordinating pieces of fabric in half and press.

The place the raw side of the coordinating fabric to the right side of the body material.

Sew.

I use a straight stitch. If you had a serger... which I do but it is currently somewhere in two vast storage units whereabouts unknown...You would serge this part together and then straight stitch next to the serged edge. Instead, I have trimmed it with pinking sheers.

Unfold the two pieces and repeat with the other two pieces.

(I didn't actually trim this one with the sheers because it was late on Saturday and when you are thinking "Dang, my girls have nothing to wear to church tomorrow" and it's midnight, well, sometimes you forget things.)

Then press the fabrics flat.

Now, I take and put the two pieces together. The front and back if you will. Right sides together. Then I sew in just over an inch from the selvage. Start from the bottom to make sure your coordinating fabric joints match up.

Like so.

Then trim...or serge.

Now I measure around my daughters waist. I pull the elastic snug and then overlap by half an inch.

Then I make the casing. On the top of the skirt, I fold down the raw edge, depending on how close my fabric is on either side determines the first fold of the casing. That is why I go three inches, because I am not an accurate seamstress and I need to leave room for error. I make one fold and press it down, then I fold that first fold over and measure how much room I have for my elastic and press the second fold down. You can see the press marks in the above picture.

I have plenty of room for the elastic.

Next, I sew a straight stitch around the top of the casing. This step isn't necessary, however I have learned that it keeps the elastic from twisting and makes for a prettier top.

Then I sew the bottom half of the casing, leaving a two to three inch opening.

Like so.

Then take two safety pins and attach one end of the elastic to the fabric and attach the other safety pin to the other end of the elastic.

Then thread the elastic through the casing.

I pull my lead out and attach it to the other safety pin while I even out the fabric as much as I can before sewing it up.

I overlap my elastic by an inch and a half and sew a square around the edges and an X from corner to corner.

Then I pull the skirt and stuff that elastic up into the casing.

Pull the casing flat and sew. Remember to back stitch.

Spread the fabric evenly and VOILA! You have a super easy, fun skirt.

It only takes me 20-30 minutes to make one of these puppies and we have tons of them now. Hopefully these instructions make sense. Let me know if you have any questions!

With a couple of tweaks, you can do so many things with this skirt. I have done an overlay and and under skirt. I have made a plain edge without the coordinating fabric and just hemmed it. I have wanted to sew strips together and make a striped skirt with the coordinating fabric on the bottom, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. My friend thinks it would be darling to put belt loops on the casing and thread a ribbon through. I agree with her.

Next tutorial, the super easy headband.

Victoria Beckham Hairstyles

Victoria Beckham's hairstyles always make the headlines- especially if she has changed her look.

Victoria has changed her style over the last 5 years many times. She started out with long curly hair - that she got from wearing hair extensions. This was a crazy stage for awhile where everyone wanted to get extensions to look like Victoria.

Then she shattered all ideas about hairstyle by getting all her hair cut off short. She started with a long version of the inverted bob hairstyle. Her hair was longer in the front and shorter in the back with tons of layers and height in the crown area.

The inverted aka shattered bob then morphed into a short pixie hairstyle, much like that of Halle Berry. It does look cute, but the longer styles seem to make her small features look better. She is so tiny and skinny that the pixie hairstyle doesn't do her any favors. Check out the latest Victoria Beckham Hairstyles

Victoria Beckham Hairstyles

Victoria Beckham's hairstyles always make the headlines- especially if she has changed her look.

Victoria has changed her style over the last 5 years many times. She started out with long curly hair - that she got from wearing hair extensions. This was a crazy stage for awhile where everyone wanted to get extensions to look like Victoria.

Then she shattered all ideas about hairstyle by getting all her hair cut off short. She started with a long version of the inverted bob hairstyle. Her hair was longer in the front and shorter in the back with tons of layers and height in the crown area.

The inverted aka shattered bob then morphed into a short pixie hairstyle, much like that of Halle Berry. It does look cute, but the longer styles seem to make her small features look better. She is so tiny and skinny that the pixie hairstyle doesn't do her any favors. Check out the latest Victoria Beckham Hairstyles

What Hair Color do you use?

I used to go to the salon every 4-6 weeks to get my hair colored. As time and money constraints kick in, these regular visits to the salon are not feasible.

I have experimented with just about every hair color brand on the market today. I would buy the ones that were on sale, the ones I had a coupon for, etc.

But the only brand that I get consistent results with is Preference by L'Oreal. I have used a natural version of the hair color and achieved very good results month after month.

What hair color product do you use? Have you used the same one for years? Leave your comments below.

What Hair Color do you use?

I used to go to the salon every 4-6 weeks to get my hair colored. As time and money constraints kick in, these regular visits to the salon are not feasible.

I have experimented with just about every hair color brand on the market today. I would buy the ones that were on sale, the ones I had a coupon for, etc.

But the only brand that I get consistent results with is Preference by L'Oreal. I have used a natural version of the hair color and achieved very good results month after month.

What hair color product do you use? Have you used the same one for years? Leave your comments below.

Medium Hairstyles

When you are looking for a new hairstyle, it is a good idea to browse online and various magazines to find examples of hairstyles that you like.

Bringing a photo example of how you want your hair cut is the best way to get good results. For example, if you tell your hair stylist that you want bangs. There are so many different types of bangs available today-- short, choppy, long, layered, regular, straight, wispy, side swept and fringe. Your idea of bangs and your stylists' idea may be totally different.

Be prepared, bring a photo of the hairstyle you want.

Back to the point of this post--medium hairstyles. The medium length really is the most versatile option. You can still wear a ponytail, yet have other options that short hair does not.

Bobs, layers, bangs--check out all the latest medium hairstyles at Hair Resources and our newest Hairstyles Blog

Medium Hairstyles

When you are looking for a new hairstyle, it is a good idea to browse online and various magazines to find examples of hairstyles that you like.

Bringing a photo example of how you want your hair cut is the best way to get good results. For example, if you tell your hair stylist that you want bangs. There are so many different types of bangs available today-- short, choppy, long, layered, regular, straight, wispy, side swept and fringe. Your idea of bangs and your stylists' idea may be totally different.

Be prepared, bring a photo of the hairstyle you want.

Back to the point of this post--medium hairstyles. The medium length really is the most versatile option. You can still wear a ponytail, yet have other options that short hair does not.

Bobs, layers, bangs--check out all the latest medium hairstyles at Hair Resources and our newest Hairstyles Blog