Blue top and skirt (pattern inside)

And what do you know, this time I did draw a pattern!

Now, about the patterns:

In order to keep the post a manageable size, I will post instructions for the skirt today, and tomorrow I will post the pattern for the top. Deal?

Please keep in mind that there is more than one way to skin a cat (and then what, what do you do with a skinned cat?), a skilled seamstress can figure this out in two seconds flat, but I am just a beginner-amateur, so please forgive me if I seem to be explaining the obvious.

And since this is the first pattern I’ll share, I expect that it might need some explanation, so go ahead and shoot. I’ll try to explain it as best I can.

For the skirt I made a universal “pattern” (more like a set of instructions). It can be adapted for children of all ages by changing the measurements.

Yeah, that’s it! Click on it to see it full-size, and save to your computer.

Please remember I was trained to draw bolts, screws and industrial stuff. This is my pitiful attempt at writing instructions for a skirt. Not something we touched in university (not that I remember much of that anyway).

I used half a yard for the top and the bottom piece of the skirt, and half a yard of the plain blue fabric. My daughter is 4 years and 10 months old. She’s average size and weight. I have no idea how much fabric you’ll need, but you can calculate using the instructions above.

The top print is Little House Patches Blue from Fabric.com. I paid $2.80 dollars for half a yard. I am not sure if the print is still available, but if it is, snatch some, it’s very pretty (and cheap). The plain blue I bought from them long ago. It’s a simple light-blue cotton, that they match is just serendipity.

These are some photos to see some parts of the skirt in detail:

Above is a detail of the casing for the elastic band. The elastic band is encased in a simple folded-over hem. I wrote the instructions so you fold twice before sewing, as most amateurs don’t have an overcast machine.

And speaking of which, where I call for serging, do whatever you normally do to finish your edges. The skirt has no bottom hem, I left the serged edge exposed. Do what you want here. A simple hem would do too.

This is probably the most obscure part of my instruction: joining the two pieces from different fabrics. This is what it looks like from inside.

So there. Luckily I don’t expect to ever make a living out of writing patterns. A good thing, I am aware I suck at it. Things make sense in my head, but somehow the message gets garbled on the way out. I still hope this is helpful to somebody.

The pattern is free to use and repost with proper attribution, just please, pretty please, send me photos if you sew one. It’ll make my day. And come back tomorrow for the other pattern.