Easy Ruffled Skirt Sewing Pattern

Hello there, this is Anshu from Blooms And Bugs.

I had been thinking about experimenting with tulle in my sewing for a while. There is something about a translucent layer of tulle peeking from beneath a hem that just takes the whole thing a notch higher. I finally made this skirt last month and both me and my little diva loved how it turned out. Very girly and twirly. Here is how I made it:

Easy Ruffled Tulle Skirt Tutorial

Size: 3T

Supplies: Half yard solid purple fabric

Waistband Elastic

Ric-Rac

Pre-Ruffled Lace

Tulle – half yard

Time: 1 hour

Skill Level: Beginner

Seam Allowance: 3/8 inch ( unless otherwise specified)

Pattern: Pattern free design

Construction:

1. For a size 3T skirt, I took a half yard fabric piece ( full width) and sewed the 18 inch sides ( Right sides together).

2. Cut 3 inch wide strips of Tulle. You could also buy precut 3 inch strips of tulle or you could buy tulle by the yard and cut 3 inch wide strips. We will use 2-3 strips of tulle in this skirt.

3. Ruffle tulle – Turn auto-backstitch off. Set machine tension slightly higher ( I used 6 instead of the regular 5.2), stitch length to longest and speed to fastest. Leave a 5 inch or longer tail of threads in the beginning and sew along the longer side of the tulle. This will ruffle the strip. When you reach the end of tulle leave another 5 inches or longer tail of threads.

These extra threads will let you adjust the ruffles by hand if needed.

4. Draw a line parallel and 4 inch above the hemline and sew the ruffled tulle along that line on the WRONG side. Yes we are sewing the tulle on the wrong side here.

If you need to use more than one tulle strips, just overlap the next tulle strip about 1/2 inch over the one you just finished. We don’t need to sew the tulle strips together here.

5. Now fold the the skirt fabric about a third way down, such that it hides the seam attaching the tulle, but about an inch of tulle still peaks from beneath this layer.

6. Iron the crease at the top. Now sew a seam 1.5 inch below this crease. Leave a gap of 1.5 in this seam to insert waistband elastic.

7. With the help of a safety pin, insert the waistband elastic in the casing. Sew both ends of the elastic together and sew the casing opening shut.

Finishing the hems:

8. For the top layer, I used ric-rac to finish the hem.

Here is how I sew ric-rac.

•  Fold the hem quarter inch on itself. Sew a seam.
•  Sew ric-rac on the outside, try to keep the seam in the center of the ric-rac.
•  Fold the ric-rac inside such that lower half is peeking out. sew a seam 1/8 inch close to the edge of fabric.

To finish the lower layer hemline:

9. First fold it quarter in towards the right side. Sew a seam.

10. Fold it 3/4 inch towards the right side. Iron well.

11. Now hold a ruffled lace on the inside ( pin or baste if needed) and sew a seam on the folded hem outside. This will attach the lace and hem the fabric at the same time.

And the ruffled tulle skirt is finished!

This pattern of skirt is also very flexible for growing kids. It was meant for a 3 year old…but my 7 year old skinny model didn’t seem to mind!

I have a bit of news to share, I have just (re)opened my etsy store and it now has beautiful tutu dresses and pettiskirts for your little girls. I would love for you to check it out.