Patchwork Skirt/Dress

About

You Will Need (2 things)

Steps (5 steps, 180 minutes)

1. 1

   the pattern for this skirt is so insanely easy. take a 4in by 4in square i made mine out of the back of a used up notebook since i was going to cut it out ALOT. if your using new fabric you can just cut it in 4 in strips but since i was using odd ball shaped scraps i made a square. now this dress in totally forgiving in that if you have a scar that's smaller than your 4 in that's ok you can still use it just make sure all your lengths are the same so one side is still 4in so when you sew them all together they match up. you just don't want to put to many in each row or you will louse to much width and it wont rushe up right.

   now to make each row you need to measure your waist, or whoever your making this for's waist.
   now here's the math, you take that and multiply it by 1.5. take a deep breath cuz thats it! yay! this will be your first row. now repeat this process for each row you want.

   to figure out how many rows you need measure from the waist line to how ever long you want it. i did mine from my daughters hem line on her tank top to about there ankles. if your now going to attach it to a top just measure from waist to end of dress. now divide this by 4in since that's how long your rows should be, give or take seam allowance.

   now you need to know how many squares you need ahead of time it means more math. i know im sorry.
   you take the length you need for each row and divide it by four. then add that number from each row together. for the one for my daughter i needed 104 squares. keep all these numbers close you want to know how many squares for each row when you sew them.

2. 2

   ok now for all the sewing, and there will be alot. take you nice tall stack of squares and take two random ones and put them right sides together and stitch en together. if you want it to be super reinforced you can zig zag over seams once you lay em flat. i did not do this. now keep repeating till you have all the squares for that row done.

3. 3

   next when you have all your squares stuck together you want to do a gather stitch at the top. if you dont have a gathering foot for your sewer which i don't you can just set your stitch to the longest setting and then pull the string at the end till it scrunches up.

   keep scrunching till you get the original waist measurement. so your scrunching up the extra half you added to the length.

4. 4

   now here's the veration, this is how i made mine i took a tank top that i had that fit my daughter and sewed the top tier of ruffles to it. i put the ruffled up edge on the tank top the facing the wrong way so that both of the right sides of fabric are together. and stitched over the ruched stitch. the red line is the new stitches the pink the pulled together ruched one. hoping my legendary paint skills don't confuse you lol.

   now you can top stitch the ruffle down when you fold it over but its not necessary.

   if your just making a skirt you will need to put a top piece on this. you can just cut a strip of fabric the length of your waist by about 4in tall, and hem both of the long ends. then fold it in half over the top of your ruched edge and sew closed.

   on the end you can either put some elastic in the top part or sew a zipper in which means you will need to wait to sew the zipper in till you have all the tiers together, so just leave it open at the end.

5. 5

   now after you have gathered up your next tier lay it over your first like we did with the tank top right sides together and sew.

   now just repeat the process exactly the same for the next tier and the next...

   until you have gone nuts from the gathering and sewing lol. then just hem the bottom. and that all she wrote!