Yet another twirl skirt....

I couldn't help myself. I bought some fabric last week, even though I've been trying to only use up what I have.

But that's what happens when you have time to kill and decide to "just look" while on an errand at the fabric store to pick up ONLY buttons.

Sometimes, JoAnn's surprises me with their fabric. Lately, I've been very disappointed in their fabric selection. Most of their quilter's cotton is cheap and inferior quality, yet they charge as much for it as the good cottons in the quilt stores. But just when I've given up on finding any decent fabric on the premises, I round a corner and there it is. Something cute. Something adorable. Something that has to come home with me.

This is the fabric that made me break my vow not to buy any more new fabric. It is a buttery, soft corduroy featuring Rapunzel, the character from Disney's popular movie, "Tangled". This just happens to be my little one's favorite movie right now. She has many of the phrases and songs memorized.

She squealed with delight when she saw the fabric. She's been asking everyday for the past week when I was going to make her "Tangled" skirt. Today was the day.

I love it, just like the other two I've made. It's a wonderful, froofy, poofy, girlie-girl skirt. Now I'm seriously contemplating getting another yard of the stuff to possibly make a matching top. Wouldn't that be adorable?

Edith Twirl Skirt, and a Onesie conversion

Today I finally got around to making this darling skirt for my two-year-old. I don't know what took me so long. It is the Edith Twirl Skirt pattern by Jona G. There are no pattern pieces to cut out--just measurements depending on the size you are making. It is very easy and suitable for a beginner. The most time consuming part is gathering and attaching the ruffle. I recently bought a ruffler attachment for my sewing machine, but I haven't got up the nerve yet to figure out how to use it. Anyway, I didn't really need this pattern to make this skirt, however, I am a sucker for cute patterns, and I wanted to support an independent pattern designer. I followed the pattern exactly, except I cut the underskirt the same width as the overskirt, and I added and lengthened the ruffles strips so that the skirt would be extra poofy. We like our skirts puffy, twirly, and fluffy around here!Here's the finished product. And my little model is always willing to pose for me, except when she's in a mood, but we won't talk about that right now.

Thankfully, she was in rare form this morning. All I had to say was "show me your pose", and there she went!

The shirt she is wearing started out as a onesie that I found in the back of her drawer. She no longer wears these, since she is potty trained. Yay! But since it still fit her, and the pale green color matched her new skirt, I decided to turn it into a regular t-shirt. I began by hacking off the bottom portion.

Next, I added some stretchy, elastic lace that has been in my stash for who knows how long. (Lace and fabric are right sides together)

Final step was turning the seam allowance to the back side and topstitching. I am a beginner when it comes to sewing with knits. I still haven't got it all figured out. But this seemed to turn out okay, so I am fairly pleased.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the main fabric for the overskirt is a buttery-soft corduroy that I purchased from JoAnn's a few months back. It has darling, woodland animals scattered across it. So cute. I was pleased when I found it, because JoAnn's has been seriously disappointing me in their fabric department lately. Usually when I need (want!) new fabric for a project, I head over to Fabric Depot, the most wonderful fabric store around. It claims to be the largest fabric store in America, covering 1 1/2 acres. It is HUGE. It is like Disneyland for us seamstresses. And they have an awesome sale once a month that I always make sure to hit. That said, I still hold out hope that I can find something cute at my nearby JoAnn's. So when I found this cute corduroy fabric, I snapped it up. Now that I think about it, there were more cute prints in this line...hmmm...I'm thinking I may have to make a quick trip to JoAnn's and see if there's any left...