It's bouncy; it's fun; it's flattering. Seriously, it looks good, even on my (still) post-baby body. And it's great for the year round. Wear it in the summer on its own, or layer it over tights or leggings.
Here's the how-to:
Materials:
lightweight knit fabric
2-inch elastic
basic sewing stuff
Instructions:
Cut three strips of your knit, selvage to selvage. (NOTE: for toddler sizes, you should decrease the width or gather the skirt more when you get to that step.) Your skirt will end up being roughly 1.5" longer than your longest strip. The other strips should be 2 and 4" shorter than the longest one. Mine are 17", 15" and 13".
Once you have them cut, place each right sides together and sew short ends.
Turn your three loops right side out and layer them. Pin them together at the top.
Run a gathering stitch along the top edge of your three pieces and gather SLIGHTLY. I only do this because, otherwise, your elastic will be nearly impossible to stretch to the width of your skirt. This step makes your life easier.
Cut your elastic to your desired waist size.
Sew right sides together then sew down the seams of the elastic.
Pin both the top of your skirt and your elastic in 1/8ths.
Then match up the pins, pinning your skirt under your elastic. It will fall a little, like so.
Sew the skirt to your elastic, stretching the elastic as you go. I used a 3/8" seam allowance. Then pull out those gathering threads. The backside will look like this.
I like to run a sew a second line of stitches close to the edge of the elastic. You'll have to pull it again as you go.
Now do a lettuce edge on all three of your layers, like I explain in this tutorial. The harder you pull, the wavier it will be!
Then you're finished and have a skirt like this! Congrats! :)
