Flamenco Skirt Tutorial

So we are just going to ignore my absence here of late and power forward :)

I have my first paying sewing job.  My aunt wants me to make some dress ups for her grand children's Christmas presents and I am having so much fun.  I am also excited because I came up with this skirt on my own and I LOVE how it turned out.  So I am going to share it with you today.  So here we go a little girls flamenco skirt.

Materials Needed:
2/3 yd of stretchy material. (I used Lycra you know the bathing suite material :)
1/3 yd of 2 pieces of material for ruffle
3/4 inch elastic
3/4 inch ribbon
matching thread
So I am making this around a size 6.  So I took 2 measurements: hips and waist to knee. A 6 yr olds hips is around 23 inches and the waist to knee is about 12.  So I added 2 inches to the hips for seems and movement and I added 1 inch to the waist to knee for a casing and cut out a piece of black Lycra 25X13.  Well to be honest I cut it on the fold so it was 13 1/2X 13.

 Now I measured 2 inches over from the side seem and 1 1/8 inch down from the top and I made a white chalk mark there a little less than 1 inch long.

 Then on that mark I made a button hole.

 Then I went ahead a made a 1 inch casing at the top of the skirt.  No need to leave a bit open though because that's what the button hole is for.

 And then I measured out 18 inches of elastic and 2 18 inch pieces of ribbon and sewed the ribbon to either end of the elastic.  Here's a tip.  I cut out a piece of bias tape and wrap it around the elastic because sewing straight on elastic is a pain.  This helps dramatically.

 Now thread your elastic/ribbon through your casing and you get this cute top.  (Make sure to seal/fray check the ends of the ribbons)

 Now I cut strip of the Lycra that was 5 inches by 52 inches.  Sew the seems to make it into one circular piece and sew a basting/gathering stitch at the top.  Now gather that and sew it onto the bottom of the skirt.  (If I make this skirt again I think I will shorten the main skirt by two inches and add two inches to this piece.)

 

Next take a piece of material you want to add for color.  Cut one of them 3 1/2 inches thick by the width of the material. (3 1/2X45ish) And do that 3 times.  So you should have 3 strips that are 3 1/2 inch's X45 inches.  Sew all those together to make one large circle piece. Hem one end and baste the other. Gather is up.

Repeat this step with another piece of material but make it 5X45ish.  

Gather the pieces to fit the bottom of the skirt and sew them on.

Tip: Both of my color pieces were light weight so I basted them together and gathered them at the same time.  This was quicker and easier than individually but can only be done if your material is light weight.

 The skirt is really cute at this point and time and it is very tempting to call this a regular skirt at this point.  But to make is a flamenco skirt we need to do one more thing. This is really simple but it is kinda hard to explain so stick with me and hopefully it makes sense.
You have at this point 3 levels of the skirt. 1- the main skirt 2- the black ruffle and 3- the color ruffles.  Fold up layers 2 and 3  and pin them about 2-3 inches away from the seem in the front of the skirt. (on the opposite side of the bow)

 Now at the distance you have the pin over start at the bottom of piece 2 and baste it to piece 1.  So you start at the seam of piece 1 and 2 and sew up to the seam of piece 2 and 3.  Now gather that stitch.  I found that since this was such a small gather it kept wanting to go flat so I grabbed the pieces of string at either end and tied them in a knot to hold.

 Now for a more permanent hold put your machine back to its regular stitch and sew over the gather.  Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end.  Now let the ruffle fall back down and voila you have a super cute flamenco skirt.

 I had my DD try it just to check on the size, and I love it.  So does she and now she wants one too.

 I tried to get her to make a sassy face for this picture but I am pleased to announce that my 5 yr old can't make a sassy face.

Well I am happy with it's results.  If you have any questions or need any clarification let me know.  Writing a tutorial is much harder than reviewing one :)

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