Patriotic Skirt

Since Independence Day is on a Sunday this year, I decided to make a patriotic skirt for the occasion. I had originally thought to use this fabulous thrift store find (a yard a half for a buck, love it!) as some quilted place mats, but I couldn't really find a red and white fabric (for the stripes) that I thought would match. This fabric is kinda vintage-y and whimsical, and I just couldn't find anything that looked good with it. So, a skirt it became! I used this 20-minute skirt tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (a blog that I absolutely love!) but I changed a few things to make it easier for me.

Changes:

1. I wanted mine to twirl when I spun around (I was in a nostalgic mood today I guess. :) so instead of one piece of fabric that was 1.5x my hip measurement, I used two pieces. It worked perfectly, and it was extra ruffly.
2. I used 1" elastic (because that's all I could find...)
3. I sewed two rows of machine basting (one with 1/4" allowance and one with 1/2" allowance). 
4. Instead of one long row of basting all across the length of the fabric, I did my two rows halfway across the fabric, left long threads, and then basted along the other half. This gives you more threads to pull to make the ruffles.

These last two steps add a little extra time to the 20 minutes, but I think it makes the ruffling part SO MUCH EASIER. (For me at least.) Having threads to pull in the middle of the fabric helps prevent the thread from breaking too. Easy, and I really like the way it turned out.

I wish I had a better place in my house to take pictures, but I really don't. It's a tiny apartment, and there are no blank walls. So, sorry you have to look at my front door all the time. And sorry about my wonky hair, it's been 80+ degrees in my house and it's just too hot to blow dry my hair. I also need to learn how to pose, hmmm, there are many things wrong with this picture.

PS, the red top is my very first refashion, attempted after this tuxedo top from DownEast Outfitters.

This is my attempt to show that it is "twirly." It's very fun. :) I'm wishing now that I'd made more decorations for the apartment, but we're moving at the end of the month so I'm not really seeing the point of trying to prettify my house.

What are you doing for The Fourth? David and I are headed down to Sandy to visit family and see OneRepublic! Last Fourth of July was one of the best weekends of my life, so I'm pretty excited to head down there. :)

I'm showing off my skirt at these parties!