The Ruffled Up Skirt

Do you love the soft billows of ruffles? I sure do. And to think it was once just a pair of shorts and a scarf. Ready to make your own?

You will need:

• An pair of jeans (or any pants or shorts will do)
• Scarf (or fabric but I will explain why I used a scarf later)

First I started with a pair of shorts. You could also use jeans with holes in the knees a great way to get more use out of them, or any pant really. Just make sure they still fit in the waist.

Then cut across right under where the zipper flap ends. (as shown above) If your pants/shorts have back pockets you may want to cut right below those pockets, mine didn’t have back pockets so I just cut it there.

Next fold your scarf in half. Here is why I used a scarf. Scarfs are made out of a sheer or silk fabric (often) and they come with a prefinished edge which is great because sheer fabric can be really hard to work with. You can use fabric for this if you want. Either way you want the fabric or scarf to be wider than the edge of the pants.

So since I folded my scarf in half I am going to cut it so I have 2 rectangles. Each one will be double the width of the bottom of the shorts. (make sense?) I also cut off the fringe that was around the edge of the scarf. (I saved it for a project later)

Then sew right sides together the sides of the 2 rectangles so that you have a tube.

One side of the tube should have a finished or hemmed edge, if not hem one edge. Then along the raw edge ruffle the tube.

Pin right sides together the ruffle to the shorts. Then sew in place.

Then you should have a skirt like pictured above. This is fine if you want a skirt just like this, but it is not the look I am going for so on to the ruffles.

Start at the bottom edge of the skirt and using a basting stitch (the longest stitch) sew a line up the skirt.

Depending on how long you want your finished skirt to be, you will stop a few inches from the top. So for example. I wanted the sheer part to be about 4 inches long so I stopped about 2 inches from the jeans. (the ruffle will be another two inches) Then to stop your basting stitch return to a normal stitch and sew backwards and forwards a few times.

Then at the bottom separate the two threads and pull one thread to gather the ruffle.

Then when you have your ruffle tie the two threads in a knot a couple of times to hold the ruffle.

Space your ruffles out an inch or two and continue around the skirt.

Then you are done.

Your little miss has a new ruffly skirt

Perfect for some feminine flair

And some high flying adventures

Enjoy your creation!