Skirting the Issue: Sachiko from Tea Rose Home

Sachiko from Tea Rose Home is joining the efforts today with a skirt that will surely be loved by girls of all ages….thanks Sachiko!

Hi, I am Sachiko from Tea Rose Home. When I was first contacted by Liz and Elizabeth about the “Skirting the Issue”, I was deeply touched by their effort to reach out and make a difference by using their talents. I feel honored to be a part of this event, and it is my hope that my small contribution and many peoples’ beautiful labor of love will bring a smile to some girls in foster care. I had several design ideas, but here is what I came up with:

I made the skirt for my little girl (she is almost 7), it is such a simple design to work with. You can make the same skirt in different sizes. I added extra cutting instruction at the end of the post for a 12 year old as a reference. * {You will need} 3/4″ fabrics for the skirt 1/4 yard fabrics to make ribbon Matching thread 1/2” wide elastic * {Cutting and sewing}

1. To make the pattern for the pockets, I simply found a bowl in my kitchen with a diameter of about 4.5. Traced half of the bowl on the back of a cereal box, and extended both sides up a little over 3”. Trace the pattern onto the 5″x 6″ squares and cut them out.

2. Hand stitch around the rounded corners, place the cereal box pattern right on the traced line, pull the thread to gather the fabric. Press with an iron. For the top, fold it twice (1/4″, 3/4″) and sew.

3. Take the bottom part of the skirt pieces, and the top part of the skirt pieces and sew both sides. Finish the edges with your preferred method.

4. Sew the top of the bottom portion of the skirt with big stitches. 5. Sew the pockets onto both sides of the bottom part of the front of the skirt.

6. Pull the threads to gather the fabric and match the width of the top portion of the skirt.

7. Attach the bottom skirt to the top portion of the skirt. Match both seams, and pin. Sew in the middle of the two lines of stitches. Finish the edge with your favorite method.

Press with an iron and from the front side top stitch the seam. 8. Fold the top portion of the skirt twice (1/4″, 3/4″). Leaving 3/4″ opening for elastic, then sew all around it with 1/8″ seam. Put through 1/2″ elastic and sew the ends together.

9. Fold the bottom edge of the skirt twice (1/4″, 3/4″) and sew.

So, if you stop here, you will have a simple fun summer skirt. If you want to kick it up a notch, you can continue on to the next steps… 10. Make belt loops. take 4– 2″x 2 1/2″ strips fold them in half, open them up, take both edges towards the folded line in the center and press. Fold them in half and sew the edge with 1/8″ seam.

11. Fold both ends of the loop, and sew it onto the skirt. I measured 3″ from both sides for the loops. Make sure you sew very close to the top edge, so you won’t sew on top of the elastic.

12. For the ribbon, you could use the same fabric, or use different fabric. I picked the darkest color on the skirt and decided to use that color for the belt, for contrast. To make the ribbon, cut 2 – 4 1/2″ wide times the width of the fabric strips (which is 44″ each). Cut one of the ends from each strip diagonally and sew them together to make one long strip. If you are making this for tweens and teens, you should cut three 6” wide strips)

13. Fold the strip right sides together the long way. Cut both ends diagonally. Leaving a few inches as an opening in the middle, sew using 1/4″ seam. Clip the corners for a clean finish.

14. Turn the strip inside out. Press with an iron, slip stitch closed.

15. Put the ribbon through the belt loops…

and done!

It is time to try it on…

Since tweens and teen’s skirts are in need, I figured out a 12 year old’s measurements for this project based on the sizing chart from Project Run and Play. If I try to explain how I did it, the post will be very long… You will need about 1 1/4 yards for this skirt, but I always like to have a little bit extra to trim the ends, so I suggest you buy a few inches more. Top portion of the skirt 2— 6 1/2″ x 17″ Bottom portion of the skirt 2— 16″ x 33″ Belt loops 4— 2″x 3″ Pockets 2—- 6″ x 7″ Ribbon 3 — 6″ x width of the fabric Please keep it mind that you have to slightly adjust where to sew the pockets, belt loops and such for larger skirts.

I hope you all enjoyed my post.

Thank you for letting me be here today Liz and Elizabeth, you guys are the best!