Here she is!

I started working yesterday morning, after cutting out the pieces and figuring and figuring and figuring how I wanted to set everything up. It was fun but challenging to create this without using a pattern. I've made purses without patterns, but never an article of clothing. But I figured making a skirt with an elastic waist was a good place to start--very forgiving.
I have a skirt from Gap with an elastic waist that is very full at the top, and I don't like how it bunches at my hips, so I decided to start narrower at the top and add fullness lower. Here are my initial measurements:
Layer 1: 11" x 45"
Layer 2: 7" x 90"
Layer 3: 2" x 135" (added just to break up the bottom two layers, which are both heavily patterned)
Layer 4: 7" x 135"

So here I am sewing on that narrow layer 3...

And this is how I gather: I sew a zigzag stitch over heavy embroidery thread, careful to keep the thread in the middle of the zigzags. Then I just pull on the embroidery thread at each end of the zigzagged edge to gather things up.

This is the finished product. I ended up making a few changes to the original design.

1) I had planned to add the velvet ribbon on the middle layer, but when I saw how bare the top layer looked, I added it there (and I have all that extra ribbon now!).

2) I ended up cutting 4" off the top layer (after sewing in the elastic, of course) because that layer just looked too long. (No pics of it--too much silliness)

3) Pockets! Clint thinks, though, that I should take one of them off. I kinda like the two, though, so I'm not sure.


It's very comfy, though, and cool. When I walk down the stairs in our house, it floats around me. Love that.

And look how twirly (yes, that is the boys having a light saber duel in the background). Guess I still am a bit of a little girl.