Tiered Skirt from a Tee Shirt

I have a dress and a skirt that I love. 

This dress from Shabby Apple:

I love the tiered skirt.

And this maxi skirt that I refashioned from a maxi dress:

It also has a tiered skirt, but the raw edges are exposed.  I love the way it looks.

So, when I found an XL tee shirt on the clearance rack, I decided to make a hybrid mix of these two skirts.  It was easy and fun. 

Here’s how I did it:

Start off with a really, really big tee shirt. 

Cut up the sides of the shirt, cut off the hem and sleeves, then cut three strips of the same height.

Cut them different lengths so that you get the skirt shape you want.  See how the strips vary in length?

You need two strips of each size.

Sew the sides of each strip together with the right sides facing each other.

Since this is knit, you need to lengthen your stitch.  I sewed mine at a 5. 

You don’t want it too long, though.  Just set your machine somewhere between the normal stitch and the basting stitch.  We do this so that your knit will still have some stretch to it.

Turn the tiers right sides out.

Next, run a basting stitch around the tops of your middle and bottom tiers of the skirt.  Gather the tiers to the same width as the tier you’ll be sewing it to. 

Goodness.  I hope that made sense.  Since they’re all different lengths, you want to gather the middle tier to the same width as the bottom of the top tier; and the bottom tier gathered to the same width as the bottom of the middle tier.

Got it?  M’kay.  Moving right along.  Pin the top of the middle tier to the bottom of the top tier with the top of the middle tier’s raw edge exposed.  Good grief.  That sounds confusing, but I promise it isn’t.  Just do this:

Sew it into place and do it again with the bottom tier.  Now your skirt is tiered and skirt shaped.  All we have left to do is the waistband, and we’re done!

We’re going to shirr the waistband.  It’s comfy and super easy.

Wind your bobbin by hand with elastic thread.

Load your bobbin into your machine the way your normally would.  Thread the top of your machine with any color of thread you want.  I used grey, since it matched my skirt. 

Fold the top of your skirt over about 1/2 an inch and make a casing for some 1/4” elastic.  Be sure to leave an opening for said elastic.  This is the same thing we did when we made the waistband for pajama pants.  Just a bit smaller.

Turn your skirt right side out and start shirring just below the casing.  Do this by sewing a straight stitch in a small, gradual, downward spiral.

 

When you’ve gone as far as you want to go, back stitch and clip your thread.  Now thread the 1/4” elastic through the casing.  Oh, you might want to measure your waist and elastic before you thread it through!  :)

Rather than sew the elastic ends together, just knot them really well and sew the casing shut.  Steam press that shirred waistband, then wash the skirt so that the raw edges will roll.

See how cute it turned out?!

Cute, comfy, fun and cheap.  What more can you ask for?!

Maybe an ice cream sundae that is tasty AND good for you?!

I wish!