Two-many: Strawberry Skirt Tutorial

After I made the girls a Picnic Skirt, I had an awesome idea to made a Berry Skirt (for Skirt Week 2013)! I wanted it to look like a strawberry with a couple of the leaves serving as pockets too! This was completely dreamed up, but it's kind of a mash up between these two tutorials - the Petal Dress and Fruit Stripe Skirt. Though I didn't follow the tutorials and maybe I should have. I really made this up as I went along. I'll try to give a tutorial on how to replicate, though I don't have many process photos.

Materials for a 2/3T skirt:

1/2 yard pink or red cotton fabric
1/2 yard green cotton fabric (might get away with less)
3/4 inch elastic (about 20 inches)
gold fabric paint

The Skirt - I started with knowing this would be a simple selvage-to-selvage width gathered skirt. I trimmed about 4 inches off the width though so it wouldn't be as full. The length of the skirt is made up of 5 inches of the green fabric and 11.5 inches of the pink. Join the two colors by sewing them right side together. Finish off the seam with a zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying.

My Inspiration

Now is the best time to add the seeds. Use some gold fabric paint and dab it on to look like tear drops (or seeds). After it dries, join the sides together by sewing them right side together and making a tube. Finish the seam with a zig-zag stitch.

Note: I gathered the waist with elastic and then added the leaves, but you lose stretch in the skirt by doing it that way. I just wanted to be able to control their poof by putting them on later. So if you need your skirt to still have stretch for ease of getting on, sew your leaves on flat before continuing on. See below on how to make the leaves.

The gathered waist is a paper bag style (you may want to follow this tutorial with pictures). Iron down the top of the green fabric 1/4 inch (wrong sides together), and then iron the top hem down in half to almost meet the pink fabric. Sew just above where the pink and green fabric meet, making sure to sew down the 1/4 inch raw edge that was pressed. Then sew a line 1 inch above that line to make a casing for the elastic. Make sure to leave about a 1 inch gap in this line so the elastic can be threaded through. Thread elastic, sew ends together, and sew up gap. Then top stitch the very top edge of the skirt.

On to the leaves - First I determined my daughters waist measurement to figure out the size of the leaves and how many. I knew I wanted to situate two leaves on either side in the front for pockets and then design from there.

Her waist is about 20 inches, so the front would be 10 inches across. So I made the leaves to be about 6 inches in width so they could overlap. Make the length to be about 4 inches long. To make a paper template of the leaves, draw a 3 inch line on some paper, then draw a 4 inch line down from the left side. Then make a curved line from the bottom of that point to the right side of the 3 inch line. It's a cross between a right triangle and a quarter wedge. Then use the paper template to cut out green leaf pieces on the fold (of the left side of the template).

Use two leaf pieces per leaf and sew them right sides together around the curve. Clip the seam allowance around the curve and turn right side out - press. I chose not to top stitch because I didn't want them to be too flat. Make about 5 to 6 leaves and then move on to the pockets. Serge or zig-zag stitch the tops of the leaves to prevent fraying.

Pockets - Use the same leaf template for the pockets except add a 1/2 inch to the tops. Cut out 4 pieces. Fold down 1/4 inch of the top of two leaf pieces, press, then fold them down another 1/4 inch and press. Then top stitch the folds down and join these leaf pieces to another just like above. (Zig-zag stitch the top of the leaf piece that wasn't top stitched)

Still with me? Time to join the leaves to the skirt. Pin the pockets on first - place them where you'd like them to be and pin them upside down where the green meets the pink fabric. (face the topstitched side of the pocket leaves down and don't sew that side or you'll close off your pockets)

Slightly gather the leaves a little by hand when pinning so they won't lie completely flat against the skirt. It's probably easier to run a basting stitch across the tops and gather them 1/2 inch to 1 inch. Pin another leaf upside down on top of pockets and in the middle of the skirt (while hand gathering it slightly). Continue layering the leaves around the skirt, slightly overlapping each as desired. Sew the leaves onto the skirt using a zig-zag stitch. Fold them back down and press.

Hem the skirt - Fold the bottom of the skirt up 1/2 inch, press, fold it up another 1/2 inch, press, and top stitch the fold down. That should wrap it up!